The Light in the Dark
by rainbowspring
Summary: Snapshots of events centered around the marauder era, featuring Lily, Snape, the Marauders, Mary, Mulciber, and more! In which a web of secrets, deceit, friendship, romance, mystery, and even murder is formed.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this fanfic will focus mostly on Snape and Lily, but there will be several chapters focusing on other characters as well. I originally wanted to write the first chapter about Snape or Lily, since they are listed as the main characters after all, but I just had this idea about Mary and couldn't refrain from writing this first, although Lily does make an appearance in this... Also, most of my chapters will not be anywhere near as dark-or as long- as this one. Please enjoy!**

The Light in the Dark Chapter1: Mary Mary Quite Contrary

Mary Macdonald was a very antisocial girl. She had always been something of an outsider, which surprised everyone who knew her. After all, with her looks one would expect a girl like her to have many friends. Fair-skinned, with a long loose raven waterfall of curls that constituted as her hair, and icy blue eyes, she was ever the cool beauty. Unfortunately, some of the words that came out of her mouth were not anywhere near as beautiful as her outward appearance. So maybe, she reasoned as she struggled to deflect the hex Mulciber had just put on her, if she had just kept her mouth shut like normal, she wouldn't be in this mess. It had all started a couple of hours ago…

Mary had a job in Hogsmeade that no one aside from the faculty knew about; she worked as one of the waitresses at the Three Broomsticks on school nights. Students weren't allowed out in Hogsmeade on school nights, so no one ever saw her at work. Mary had special permission from Dumbledore himself to work there at that particular time; he knew her family was practically falling apart. Her father had been a wonderful man until the day he died… which was just a few years before Mary started Hogwarts. Once upon a time the Macdonalds had been financially stable. Her father had been a Healer at St. Mungo's, and had been researching a cure for Dragon Pox. He wound up injecting a portion of the disease into himself in order to test the cure he thought he had discovered for it, only to find out that not only did his cure not work, it only caused the disease to spread much faster around the body. The other Healers could not cure him by the time they arrived; it was too late.

Mrs. Macdonald did not work; she had never finished her education and therefore she had difficulty finding employment. Mary's mother had gotten pregnant at the young age of 15; she had dropped out of school to take care of her first child before she had even taken her O.W.L.s.

_("I 'ad always been rubbish a' schoo' anyway',"Mary's mother said on the subject. )_

As such**, **Mary's mother (Whose real name was Matilda, but who the men all called Tilly when they came around, much to Mary's disgust) had much more difficulty finding work than the average witch living in Britain already did. A witch who had completed her education and had qualifications may still have difficulty finding a steady job, but it would not have been anywhere near as arduous as it had been for Matilda Macdonald, who did not even have any O.W.L qualifications.

So it was more or less up to Mary to earn most of the money for the family; _Tilly, _as her _clients _liked to call her, had given up on keeping a steady job and decided to go seek out a more…less fortunate occupation. None of Mary's classmates knew of her job; she did not want anyone to even suspect that the Macdonalds were less than well off in any sense of the word. In fact, she doubted that any of her schoolmates even knew her father was _dead_. And God forbid any of them find out about poor desperate _Tilly_…

Mary had been in the middle of her shift one night when she saw something, or more accurately, _someone_, who made her heart skip a bit. Malum Mulciber was sitting at the bar just five feet away from her, looking her directly in the eye.

"What are you doing here MacDonald? "He asked as if he had every right to be there, or had any more right than she.

"What does it look like I'm doing, I'm working." Mary scanned the crowd, to see if there was absolutely anything she could be doing to avoid having to talk to this creep. And creep he was; Mulciber had an unusual and disturbing obsession with the Dark Arts and, rumor had it, was very experienced in them. His family were all Death Eaters, and Mary wouldn't be surprised if he went the same way. Mary herself was half-blood; she would not have called herself a Blood Traitor, but her family did not care one way or the other about blood purity and the war going on at the moment; they were too busy about making ends meet to care about that sort of thing. Both of her parents were Half-Blood, and therefore did not have much to say on the issue either way even if her father had come back to life and they weren't struggling so much right now…

"Damn right you are, "he smirked. "I'd like to order a drink."

"What are you doing here? "She wondered. "Students aren't allowed out on school nights. How did you beat the system?"

"Why are you working here? "He countered.

"What would you like to drink? "She attempted to change the subject.

"Firewhiskey,"He answered immediately.

She returned with his drink a few minutes later. "Anything else?"

"You know, I hear that in these fancy restaurants waitresses are supposed to call customers sir,"Mulciber mused.

"And I am pretty sure you have no place being here right now, yet here you are. "Mary slammed the glass onto the table, almost breaking it.

Mulciber tsked tsked."Now now now, you wouldn't want me to complain to the manager about a particularly surly waitress, would you?"

Mary glared in response; he had the upper hand here and they both knew it.

Mulciber grinned mockingly." Now, would you like to rephrase that question?"

"Would you like anything else…_sir_? "She spat, feeling humiliated.

"Well,"his lips twitched once more. "There are many things I would like, but… I think I will tell you those when your shift is done. What time do you get off?"

Mary looked at the clock; it was now 8:15P.M. "Half an hour, "she lied; in reality she got off at 9:30, but surely he wouldn't wait that long; students had to be in their common rooms by 9:00. Although, if he had no qualms about sneaking off to Hogsmeade, he probably wouldn't have a problem with being out of bed after hours. Still, there was no way he'd be willing to wait for over an hour for her, so she should be able to shake him off.

Mulciber did not seem at all unperturbed by this in the slightest; on the contrary he only smiled serenely. "I can wait until then."

Mary continued on with her shift and was pleased to see that by 9:00P.M Mulciber had already left. She had managed to evade him by serving other customers instead, so the rest of the night should be a breeze. It would be a bit of a walk to go back to the castle and enter her common room, but she should be able to start finishing the rest of her homework by 10:00P.M., which would hopefully only take about two more hours or so(she had already started much of her homework before her work) and then she could go to bed.

Half an hour layer Mary had just exited the pub when a voice said, "you've been a bad, bad girl Mary Macdonald." Mary screamed and whirled around to find Mulciber standing right behind her. Gathering her bearings, she demanded, "You! What the hell are you playing at? I thought you went back to the castle."

"I told you I could wait, "It was then that Mary noticed his breath reeked of alcohol. "You were the one who lied; you said your shift would be over almost an hour ago."

"Well of course I lied, "Mary laughed coldly. "Who would ever want to spend more time than necessary in the company of an incompetent arrogant freak like you?"

" Tut Tut. That was a rather naughty thing to say now wasn't it Mary? Mulciber did not seem out off by her insult.

"The truth can hurt sometimes, "Mary snapped and started to walk away. Mulciber grabbed her and before she could so much as yelp he kissed her as she dropped her wand in shock. Mary had already had her first kiss when she was much younger, but that didn't make the experience of kissing Mulciber any less disturbing or disgusting. His breath stank and he tasted terrible. She kicked him between his legs, causing him to let out a yell and curl up in the fetus position.

"You," she snarled. "Are the most terrible kisser on the planet. No girl would ever want to kiss a man like you: You are vile, vulgar, disgusting, and quite frankly you make me sick. No one could ever love a mutant like you, and a mutant is what you are Mulciber; I assure you I am nowhere near naïve of the evils of this world and the cruelty in it, but you are the epitome of scum. Even the cruelest of human beings are not like you; you are scum beneath even _their_ shoes. I highly doubt a mutant like you is even human." And with that begin said, she turned on her heel and left. She soon broke into a run. That was the worst thing she had ever said to anybody in her entire life, although it did occur to Mary that she could be rather cold sometimes. It fleetingly occurred to Mary that she may not be as good a person as she liked to believe; in over four years of magical education, when had she ever said hello to somebody without being spoken to first, or complimented any of her classmates? She was not a friendly person; she did not have time for friends between school work and actual work. She had to make sure she did not wind up like her mother. She had to escape her life as soon as possible, and the best way to for that was to work hard and focus on what mattered most: Her studies and earning enough money so her family could survive, and maybe one day she would earn enough so that _Tilly_ would not have to work again…or at least, so that she could find a better job than the one she had now, if you could even call such an occupation a career. That's all her life was really: Learn, work study, work, taking care of the family, and, occasionally, sleeping and eating.

She had never even bothered trying to make friends at Hogwarts; what was the point? They would never get her in life anywhere. She knew some people had tried to reach out to her when she first got to Hogwarts, had tried to befriend her. She had never been truly mean to any of her classmates before tonight; she had only remained distant and acted a bit cool with people. Cold, perhaps, but not actually mean. Soon it seemed most of her classmates realized that she just did not seek companionship and so they ignored her and she them. Everyone except one. Lily Evans.

Lily Evans, who reminded Mary so much of her father it was scary. She was polite to everyone she knew, regardless of whether she liked them or not; although quite frankly Mary doubted Lily really disliked anybody. Except, perhaps, Mulciber and Avery(she had noticed Lily give them dirty looks a few times, although she had never seen Lily lash out at them like she just did) in which case she totally understood her dislike of them. She had seen Lily yell at James Potter before, but only when he was beginning a bully. The rest of the time she acted perfectly civil towards him, and a few times Mary even swore she saw her smile at him or laugh at a joke he just said. She even somehow managed to act civil towards even Mulciber and Avery. Never friendly, but civil at least. It did not help that Lily Evans was practically the spitting image of her father, with that long auburn hair and those vivid green eyes.

Mary had always been polite towards Lily, but had never tried to engage her in conversation despite sharing a dormitory with her for several years. That wasn't to say that Lily had never tried to talk to her though; Lily, even after all these years, still acted kindly and friendly towards her, and Mary would be lying, she realized now as she walked up the hill past the Whomping Willow, if she had said she had not enjoyed Lily acting as if she actually…well, _cared_ about Mary and viewed her as a friend, making time to ask her how she was.

Mary had reached almost reached the castle when she heard a voice and felt her body go still. "That wasn't a nice thing you said to me before Mary." Mulciber had followed her back to the castle. "I think you ought to be taught a lesson Macdonald. You probably think you can say whatever you want just because you've got a pretty face. Let's see if you still can when people can't even see it." It was then that Mary noticed her hair was growing at an alarming rate; it was flowing past her hips and her fringe had grown down to her eyes now. In fact, it wasn't even the hair on her head that was growing like this; it seemed that all the hair on her body was growing at an alarming rate. She screamed, trying to move but found herself stuck to the ground.; She reached for her wand when she remembered; She had dropped it when Mulciber had accosted her earlier. Mulciber smirked, dangling her wand in front of her face. "You probably won't be able to see soon, but being he generous soul that I am, I think you would like to see your wand one last time before you look like a yeti. That will learn you not to disobey me, and will hopefully serve as a lesson towards everyone else… I must say, that Lily Evans has always been a rather pretty girl, but she really has become quite the alluring young woman as of late…"The last thing Mary saw before her hair and her eyelashes grew so that they covered her eyes was Mulciber licking his lips hungrily.

Mary felt a surge of anger. "Don't you dare harm her, you bastard!"

"OH? What are you going to do to me, yeti?" Mulciber taunted.

Mary cursed angrily at him, using all of the swearwords she had learned from the men that visited her mother, which were fairly impressive swears, but this did nothing to daunt Mulciber. He only laughed harder.

Soon the hair covered Mary's mouth and she could not even scream. Mary's face was now immersed in hair. The only part of her body that was not covered in hair was her nostrils; it was painful.

"Mulciber! What are you doing!" Mary realized could not tell who possessed the voice, only that it was a male and he sounded very familiar.

"Teaching Macdonald a lesson Lupin,"Mulciber answered calmly. "She was quite rude to me earlier."

"LEAVE HER ALONE!"Mary heard a second voice she recognized as Lily Evans'. She then felt a pair of arms around her, attempting to lift her up, but she was stuck to the ground. Mary wanted to cry. "Take the curse off of her!" Lily shouted at Mulciber.

"Hmm, I don't really feel like it."Mulciber pretended to think about it.

"Malum Mulciber, we are prefects and if you don't take the curse off of her we will-"

"Ooh, the big bad prefects are going to take off house points! "Mulciber pretended to be frightened. "I'm really scared now."

"Remus, I am going to go get a teacher, "Lily was saying now. "Keep an eye on this sicko for me and see if there's anything you can do to help Mary."

"Okay, "the other prefect responded and Mary realized with a jolt that it was Remus Lupin.

"Moony, what's going on?" Yet another voice spoke. "What's this blighter doing here? What happened to…her?"

"BLODDY HELL!" One more new appalled voice exclaimed. Mary would have groaned if she could; was the entire _bloody_ school there?

"Mulciber cursed Mary; Lily and I were doing our rounds when we heard screaming and came by to see what was going on. Mulciber has refused to take the curse off her and Lily went to get a teacher. We tried taking Mary to the hospital Wing but Mulciber's curse doesn't allow her to move. "

Mulciber laughed sadistically.

"You sick twisted son of a bitch," One of the voices growled.

"Don't you dare insult my mother, Black, "Mulciber retorted and Mary realized Sirius Black was here with them. Now there was only one voice she did not recognize.

"What is going on? "A shrill voice demanded, and the gasped at the sigh of Mary.

"Mulciber won't take the curse off of her Professor McGonagall," The unidentified voice informed her.

"Mulciber, take the curse off of Miss Macdonald this instant!"

A reluctant sigh. "Yes, Professor."

Nothing happened for a moment. Mary then stood up, but unsuccessfully, as she fell back down again due to the hair in her face obscuring her vision and blurring all of her other senses too, it seemed.

Mulciber laughed cruelly, which resulted in McGonagall scolding, "MULCIBER! You are in enough trouble as it is, I would hardly think that something to laugh about! Why did the hair not shrink?"

"I don't know Ma'am," He answered. "This is the first time I've ever used the counter curse for that spell before."

Even in her blind condition Mary could see McGonagall frown. "Very well. Miss Evans, Potter, Black, and Lupin, take Miss MacDonald up to the Hospital Wing. Later, I shall question why , Potter, you and Black were here out of bed. But for now, help Miss MacDonald to the hospital wing. Mulciber, I shall be taking you to your head of house to speak about this."

Mary felt a pair of arms around her waist, gently lifting her up.

"Up you get Mary, "She heard a consoling male voice saying as another pair of arms gripped hers. "Everything will be all right. Just walk, we're right here." Mary had no idea what was happening on their walk to the Hospital Wing; she was only aware of the sounds of Potter's, Black's, Lupin's, and Lily's consoling voices guiding her in the right direction. Mary disliked it almost as much as being under the physically pain inducing curse itself; one would think she were a baby, learning how to walk for the first time, the way they were doting on her. When at last they reached the Hospital Wing, Mary heard Lily, Remus, Sirius, and James explain to Madam Pomfrey what they had gathered had happened. Mary could not provide any information; the hair shielding her mouth prevented her from speaking.

She still had the ability to- however limited- breathe through her nose and hear though. "You all may go now; I shall administer some painkillers and a dreamless sleep potion so she does not wake up during the night; removing all this hair is not going to be a pretty experience. Although, I am sure the physical pain of that curse was even worse than this is going to be… the levels of pain from that curse is half as bad as the actual Cruciatus… the only problem is I am going to have to get rid of some of the hair on her mouth in order to administer the potion.. I would recommend leaving now: She will probably scream something awful being as this will hurt quite a bit for a few minutes. "

"I'd like to stay with her, in that case then, ma'am. "Mary heard Lily's voice and felt a cold hand wrap around her furry one. It felt good partially due to the fact her palms were sweating uncontrollably underneath all the hair, which had exerted a substantial amount of heat throughout her body.

"Me too, "James Potter added, who was then seconded by Black and Lupin.

The nurse was silent for a moment before relenting.

The next thing Mary knew she felt as if someone had ripped a particularly large and sticky piece of duck tape off of her mouth. She let out a tortured cry. She felt the grip on her hand tighten. It continued on this way for what felt like ages but in reality was only a few more minutes before finally Madam Pomfrey murmured, "The pain is over now. I shall now administer the necessary potions so that she won't be awake for the rest of this. You may go now."

Mary felt some liquid pour into her mouth, and then blacked out.

When Mary awoke, sunlight was streaming through the windows and her body felt extremely sore. She looked around realizing she was in the hospital wing. It took her a moment to remember the events of last night and immediately lifted up her hand to see if there was any hair left, an action which left her feeling both relieved and regretful. Relieved because her hand was as hairless as it was before- although, she knew that all parts of the human body had hair on them, regardless of whether or not it was visible- and an action she regretted because it seemed simply moving her body was extremely painful due to how sore she was. She moaned.

"Ah, you're awake I see. "Madam Pomfrey bustled over.

"How long was I out for? "Mary inquired.

"It's midafternoon right now, "Madam Pomfrey replied. "So you were out for less than 24 hours."

A sudden though occurred to Mary. "My homework-I never got to finish-"

"It's all right dear, you are excused from classes for today and tomorrow as well, "Madam Pomfrey assured her. "After that is the weekend, so I am sure between now and Monday you will have plenty of time to catch up on all of the work you have mussed."

Yet another thought occurred to Mary. "Will I be able to go to work today?"

"Absolutely not, "Madam Pomfrey said firmly.

"But my family-"

"Will be able to survive just a couple of days without extra pay, "Madam Pomfrey assured her." Moreover, I am sure that when –_and only when-_ you are better you can make up for the lost hours somehow. In fact, the Headmaster has already notified your employers about this little predicament and that you shall be missing work tonight and tomorrow. For now, all you can do is rest. You're too sore to even get out of this bed. Although, when you are well enough to walk again-which hopefully will be in a few hours- I would like you to examine yourself to make sure all of your hair proportions are exactly the way you want them to be."

Mary gave a reluctant sigh and closed her eyes before asking. "Is school over yet?"

"I believe that in roughly fifteen minutes classes will have finished for the day, "the nurse answered." And therefore in approximately 20 minutes Lily Evans shall come in here to give you your homework. She came in here during lunch time when you were still unconscious to see how you were doing as well as to deliver the homework from your morning classes. She told me to expect that she would drop by after school to deliver your work from your afternoon classes."

Mary nodded and silently griped about missing work and school because of Mulciber. She had never liked him; in fact, she had somewhat disliked him even before last night; she had found him to be rather annoying. Now, if anyone had asked Mary for her opinion on him, she would not have hesitated to say she hated him; Mary was not exactly the forgiving type and it was not unknown for her to hold a grudge against someone for years. Mary knew in this instant she would never drop this newfound grudge against Malum Mulciber. It was _his_ fault she would be behind on her schoolwork. It would be _his_ fault if he told the whole school about her job and people started speculating what _Tilly_ did for a living.(Although, Mulciber thankfully didn't know _that_ little piece of information, so hopefully nobody would draw _that_ particular conclusion.) It was _his _fault her family would have to get by for a few days without the extra money she sent them.

As Mary mulled over this, she heard the door to the Hospital wing open and she opened her eyes. Lily Evans entered the room, carrying some books and worksheets. "Hello, how are you? "She greeted as she laid the books and paper on the table next to Mary.

"…Fine, "Mary lied, even though she really wasn't.

"I brought you some homework from your classes today, "Lily answered. "I went through your trunk to get your books-"

"You what?!"Mary exclaimed sharply, heart pounding. She had a couple of photographs she would die if anybody saw that she kept hidden at the bottom of her trunk. One of which was a photo of her and her mother standing in front of her rundown house…if you could even call it an ordinary house really, what with its condition and all of the men who came and went…

"I-"Lily clearly had not expected this reaction.

"What did you see? "Mary demanded.

"I-I saw some books and…a photograph, "Lily confessed, deciding that lying would only make the situation worse.

"What was the photograph of? "Mary whispered.

"A pretty young girl who looked a lot like you…standing in front of a…small house in poor condition… with a pretty woman who looked almost exactly like her, except grown up, "Lily replied cautiously.

Mary was silent for a moment before the words came out of her mouth before she could stop them. "I live there you know…that's me in the picture, and my mum."

"Oh."Lily did not know what to say.

"We've been living there for years….have to, since my dad's not around anymore to take care of us…"and with that being said Mary spilled her entire laugh story to Lily. She told her about her father, how they were evicted from their home, about her job in Hogsmeade, and about what _Tilly_ did for a living now. Mary was disgusted when felt tears roll down her face. Marry Macdonald _never_ cried. Ever. Not even when Mulciber had hexed her. She immediately lifted up her arm to swipe away her tears on her sleeve, and when she was done she slowly looked up and saw the Lily had tears streaming down her face too.

From then on, Mary had a friend at Hogwarts who knew about her home life and never told her secrets. _Ever_. And her name was Lily Evans.

As for Mulciber, while he did get punished for his deeds, some people, or at least Lily, felt he got off far too lightly.

"You won't believe it, "Lily said the next day when she arrived to give Mary her homework after school.

"What?" Asked Mary. The headmaster had arrived earlier that day in the Hospital Wing to hear Mary's –who was now entirely 100%back to normal-recollection of the events that had transpired in Hogsmeade with Lily, Remus, James, Sirius, and Professor McGonagall to hear their sides of the story as well. She hoped Lily was going to say Mulciber got expelled.

"Here is the list of rules Mulciber violated as follows for what he did the other day: He was out of bed after hours, out of school grounds at night without permission, disobeyed prefects, sexually harassed/assaulted you, and used Dark Magic on you. I would think that at the very least the combination of all of those offenses should warrant suspension, wouldn't you?"

"Right, "Mary said slowly.

"Well, it's not like he's receiving no punishment at all, but I still think more action needs to be taken: He's only getting three months of detention." Lily informed her.

Mary scowled crossly. True, three months of detention was severe, but wasn't what he did to her worth more punishment than that in addition to all of those other offenses.

"I know, "Lily agreed. "If I were in charge, not only would he be suspended for a week, but when he came back he would have detention every week day for the rest of the year."

"Wow Evans, you would sure make one strict headmistress, "Mary remarked. "Why wouldn't you just expel him and be done with it?"

"Because I don't think expulsion would be so bad in his case,"

Mary gaped at Lily. "How could that _not_ be bad?"

"Well, "Lily explained. "It would of course, be very difficult for him to pursue his magical education, but he would no doubt be able to do it. Oh, I'm sure at his next school the teachers would keep an eye on him, and his parents would be disappointed in him and may punish him further, but that would be all that would happen really. I'm not saying expulsion would not be serious,-because it would be- but as a pureblood wizard from a wealthy family he would not have any trouble continuing his education, and apart from maybe his parents disciplining him, nothing would happen really. However, if he were not only suspended, but punished even further than that, he would hopefully be much more disciplined at the end of the year than he was at the beginning. "

Mary was stunned at the intelligence and thought behind that explanation. "I have to admit, you may have a point."

Lily blushed. "Thank you. Anyway, who knows? Maybe Mulciber will get better. "She sounded so innocently optimistic in this that Mary didn't have the heart to express her skepticism. She remembered a time when she was vaguely like that.

**A/N: I like to think that after the Mary incident took place Mulciber lied to all of his friends that Mary had just randomly gone up to him, saying these nasty things so he had hexed her. I think this being as I believe that even at this point Snape wouldn't be so messed up that he would find it socially acceptable for Mulciber to sexually harass a girl and then hex her after defending herself. Also, Mulciber would probably be too embarrassed to admit his failed attempts at "seduction" to his friends, so he would want to make Mary seem like she was just begin unjustly mean to him for no reason, and that therefore-in his opinion- he was in the right to use that curse on her. I think that this explanation would explain Snape and Lily's interactions during that brief scene in DH where Mary is mentioned; Lily would not realize Snape had only heard one side of the story, and Snape would not realize there was more to it, hence him dismissing it off as "just a laugh."**

**Questions: What do you think of Mary? Of Lily? Of Mulciber? Was Mulciber punished too harshly, not enough, or just right? **

**Please review!:D **


	2. Innocence and Corruption

**A/N:Thanks so very much to everyone who reviewed last chapter! **

**Disclaimer :I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters used in this fanfic. **

Chapter 2: Innocence and Corruption

_Pick up. Please pick up. For the love of Merlin please pick up. _

For the ordinary teenage boy, simply waiting for someone to answer the phone would not have caused such anxiety. For Severus Snape, on the other hand, it most certainly could. As he pressed the phone to his ear, listening to the dial, he silently prayed that _she_ would answer. Or at the very least her mother would answer; unlike her father and her sister, her mother actually seemed to like him for some strange reason. Maybe she only felt sorry for him. It did not matter to him, so long as he was able to talk to Lily.

Petunia, if she were the one to answer the phone, would more often than not point blank refuse to let him speak to Lily. She seldom would even let Lily know he called. Mr. Evans, at least, would always grudgingly give Lily the phone or take a message if she weren't, but only after several minutes of interrogation in regards to his intentions to his youngest daughter. And Snape needed to hear her voice. Now.

His wish was granted when he heard her voice answer the phone. Before she could say anything to her than hello, he said one word. "Playground." As soon as he reviewed confirmation from her, he hung up.

He gave himself a quick once over in the broken mirror(courtesy of his father) and, even with the distorted image reflected through the shattered looking glass, could tell he looked even worse than usual. He sported two black eyes and a nasty scratch on his right cheek, while a fresh bruise adorned his left one.

Next, he proceeded to stealthily slip out of the house, being as quiet as possible. Although, he highly doubted his parents cared whether or not he left (most days they didn't even notice)by the didn't want to ignite the ire of his father again after he had just calmed down. _Or else I'll have more of these blighters to speak for, _he thought grimly, in regards to his injuries.

Once out of the house, he ran. Broke into a mad run and sprinted away. Away from the hell that was his home. Away from the dark and into the light, when he at last saw her waiting for him. She was an angel siting on a swing he thought to himself as he approached her.

"Brownie?" This was the only word that came out of her mouth as soon as she saw his face, and the damage that had been done to it. As she spoke, she extended her left arm, revealing a piece of fudge in her hand. "Mum made some fudge right before you called. I already had some, but there was still a lot left over so I thought you might want some."

He hated taking things from her, he really did,-her gracing someone such as him with her presence willingly automatically left him indebted to her- but under the circumstances, he was inclined to say,  
"Thanks, "and take it out of her hand before promptly taking a bite out of it. Though an observer would not have thought anything was wrong had it not been for the bruises on his face, he was scared. Hurt. Both physically and emotionally, even if he would refuse to admit it. He was still suffering from the aftershock inflicted by his father, and would accept any kindness he received without question.

He sat down on the swing next to her; the playground was deserted except for the two of them. It wasn't simply the fact that he had received a beating that was jarring to Severus; he received beatings at home on a regular basis. The only reason it wasn't more often was because his parents sometimes seemed to forget their son's existence. Some days he couldn't decide which he would prefer: Getting beaten every day or having his parent never even acknowledge his existence ever again.

No, what had happened today was different than usual: The abuse had been more severe than it normally was for starters, and what it was about was different than usual. Severus's father beat his wife, Severus supposed, even more often than he beat his son. Today though he was much worse than usual. Severus's mother had been having an affair with another man. Severus knew this. Thankfully Tobias, Severus's idiot of a father, was still in the dark about this. However, Tobias had, before his son had even been born, suspected his wife of gallivanting around with other men for no logical reason. This was well before even Severus started noticing his mother writing letters when she thought she was alone, her frequent stares out the window that contained the same look of longing Severus had grown accustomed to, but now contained a look of something else as well, or her applying makeup and constantly examining her appearance in the mirror, or taking care to smooth out the wrinkles in her discolored, bland, graying clothes. For whatever reason, Tobias Snape was constantly paranoid about his wife leaving him, or betraying him by running around with other men. He was almost always incorrect. This time was one of the few times in the history of the world that he was right. About anything.

Tobias may have not noticed these signs that Severus had; he was just accusing his wife again, as it was not uncommon for him to do. Snape had, when his father leaned in to attack, jumped in front of his mother, Eileen, so that his father's blow struck him instead of her. Snape defended Eileen to the best of his ability, but was still no match for Tobias's strength. Tobias managed to beat them both more severely than usual. Maybe, Severus mused, the brute actually did have an inkling about what his wife was doing, and that was why he had been even more vile than usual.

Snape remembered the conversation he had had with his mother two weeks previously when he saw her come back to the house after midnight(he had been up in his room reading when he decided to fetch a snack-he had not ate since breakfast- and had crept downstairs to find his mother locking the door):

"_What are you doing up? "Eileen demanded. "Get back to bed before you father-"_

"_Dad's sleeping it off,"(Tobias had gone on one of his binges that day. Snape privately hoped he would get alcohol poisoning and die before it could be treated in time.) "What were you doing out?"_

"_That's none of your concern,"_ _ Eileen whispered furiously. It was then that Snape noticed her lipstick was smudged at the corner of her mouth, and that her neck had a red mark on it that was certainly very different from the injuries Tobias inflicted on his family. _

"_Is that a hickey?" He blurted out and instantly regretted it when his mother knocked him upside the head. Eileen Prince Snape seldom hit her child, but when she did, Severus knew it was never a good sign. _

"_In my day, sons were taught not to speak that way to their mothers. Now go. To. Bed." Her voice was dangerous, and ordinarily Severus would have retreated, but before he could stop himself he continued,_

"_You're having an affair, aren't you? How long has it been going on? I've been seeing the signs for a while." _

_She clapped her hand over his mouth."Shut up. Suppose your father came in here and heard-"_

_Snape removed her hand from his mouth. "I told you, he's asleep. He'll be lucky if he even wakes up tomorrow. Who's this bloke your seeing?"_

"_It doesn't matter who he is, "she muttered." Just don't tell your father."_

"_Is he rich?" Severus wondered, silently praying the answer was yes: If it was, he could take Severus and Eileen away from Tobias and they would be financially stable as well as safe. _

"_Maybe, "Eileen might as well have told her son nothing: Eileen was the type of person who when they said maybe, actually meant maybe. Nothing more, nothing less. For all Severus knew, this man could be wealthier than Potter or poorer than the Weasleys. _

"_Is he going to get us out of here?"_

"_Yes."_

"_When?"_

_Eileen didn't answer him; Severus judged from her silence that she did not know._

"_Is he a decent sort of man?"_

"_Yes,"Eileen stated, but there was a note of hesitation in her voice. _

"_Then why hasn't he got you out of here yet? Any decent bloke would have by now."_

_When he met only silence he pressed on. "He's probably only in it for the sex, then."_

_Eileen nearly fainted. "W-What did you just-" Words failed her._

"_Well, if he really loved you, -even if he didn't know all the details-he could still clearly tell something was wrong and would make more of an effort to help you after so long. I mean, what has he done for you?"_

_Her silence told him his answer: Nothing. _

"Do you want to talk about it?" Lily did not know about his mother's affair. Or what it was about this time. But anyone with eyes who knew Severus like she did could clearly infer what had happened. Lily Evans had(and perhaps in some instances with good reason)been deemed as "naive" on countless occasions, but she wasn't _blind_. She knew-to a certain extent- about the abuse he suffered at home. She would never forget the day when she found out. They had been ten years old when after a particularly nasty beating he broke down sobbing and ran to her, desperate for any form of comfort.

Moments like that rarely happened anymore now that they were older; Sev had learned to hide his feelings shockingly well. Still, there were moments like these when, even though to the casual observer he would seem perfectly fine aside from his poor clothing and injuries, she could sense he was hurting. Not just physically, but emotionally too. Badly.

There were some days when she just wanted to give him a hug, for no apparent reason, as if a hug could erase all of the bad things in his life and replace them with an endless cycle of euphoria. What a world that would be, Lily mused. If casual and intimate embraces could erase all of a person's darkness that lay lurking in their past and envelop their future in light.

Severus was quiet for a moment before answering. "No." Lily nodded, not expecting anything any different. A tense silence hung in the atmosphere for a moment when Snape spoke again.

"Actually, my mum's having an affair."

Lily certainly had not been expecting that. She deemed it best to remain silent though; years of friendship had taught her that sometimes it was best for Sev to break the ice in situations like this.

"She came home a few weeks ago after midnight and it was fairly obvious what she had been doing. She even confessed she was cheating on Dad; not that I blame her though. She says she's going to run off with whoever she's involved with and we'll get away one day, but… "He shook his head. "This has been going on for ages. If there was any chance of escape, I think it would have appeared by now." Severus chose to give Lily a slightly censored version of the story; he was a little uncomfortable at the prospect of enlightening sweet innocent Lily that he had told his mother her boyfriend was, as he had so eloquently phrased it," only in it for the sex".

Lily did not know how to respond to that. Her eyes glanced at the swing set pole for a moment, when she suddenly let out a gasp.

"What's wrong?" She had been quiet for over a minute so her gasp took him by surprise; perhaps this was just some sort of delayed reaction to the information he had juts disclosed to her?

"I- it's just-someone wrote a curse word in sharpie on the pole right here where any young child could come along and read it at any moment!"

Severus raised an eyebrow. "So?"

Lily gaped at him, looking somewhat like a fish out of water, albeit a very attractive fish Snape thought. "_So_? You-you can't just go around scribbling _swears_ onto public property, where any innocent child can see it! That's _vandalism_!"

"it's not the worst crime there is out there, "Snape countered.

"Well, all right you do have a point, "Lily conceded. "But there's a huge difference between illegally spray-painting art on the side of a dirty building and corrupting children! I can't believe someone actually did this at a playground, with the knowledge that any innocent child could see that"

Snape could not help it; he laughed.

"What's so funny?" Lily crossed her arms.

"You do realize-"The rest of Snape's sentence was drowned out by his uncontrollable chuckling.

"_Sev_!" Lily pouted.

"You do realize, "Snape was somewhat able to control himself now." That there have been much worse words than that inscribed on various pieces of playing equipment here since we were children?"

The look on Lily's face resulted in Severus howling with laughter once more.

"After-all these years, "he managed to choke out, tears of mirth rolling down his face." You never noticed that?"

"Well-I- I didn't know any curse words until I met you, remember? "Lily reminded him, blushing furiously.

"How could I forget?" Severus recalled though his gales of laughter the time he had taught naive little Lily Evans how to swear properly in exchange for kisses. "That was the day I learned your sister is much stronger than she looks."

An idea struck Lily. She got up and walked around the playground, examining the underside of a slide. "There are even more under here! There's hardly an inch of the slide that's not covered in profanities!"

"While it's not as impressive, "Severus stood up and walked towards to the teeter totter. "There are a fair amount of those words over here too."

As Snape showed Lily the vandalized property, a thought occurred to her that made her feel rather giddy all of a sudden.

"I've got an idea, "She giggled. "I'm going to go back to my house and fetch some sharpies to cross out all of these words, and replace them with some vocabulary more appropriate for their age group. I'll write…rainbows, unicorns, cupcakes… I'll throw in some good SAT words! "Lily added.

"Oh yes, "Severus sniggered. "Because words like rainbows, unicorns, and cupcakes are of course, the key words for entering any stately university."

Lily giggled some more. "Not _those_ words-necessarily- but words like academic, perpendicular, voluminous, flibbertigibbet-"

"What?" Snape cackled. "Is that even a real word?"

"it actually is, as a matter of fact, "Lily answered truthfully, trying to control her giggles as she gasped with laughter.

"Oh? What does it mean? Snape inquired amidst his chuckling.

"It-means, "Lily tried valiantly to keep a straight face." A flighty or whimsical person; it describes you perfectly Sev."

She tittered as he attempted to scowl at her, but wound up smirking instead; it was hard for him to ever be mad at Lily, and on the rare occasion he was he could never stay mad at Lily for long.

"I'm going to go back home now to get a sharpie. Do you want to come with me?" Lily turned to Snape.

"You're not actually serious about this, are you? "Sev inquired half amused half incredulous.

She shrugged. "Why not?" She then took him by the hand, leading him home.

When they arrived at her house , she commented before ringing the door bell, "Petunia's not here right now, by the way."

They entered the house after she rang the doorbell and Mrs. Evans let them in. A minute later, they racing back to the playground at Lily's rather giddy insistence, a packet of sharpies, prepared to paint a rainbow of lovely words on the playground equipment.

Lily chose to conveniently forget that this technically counted as vandalism albeit for a good cause a s she took out a green marker, removed the cap and started crossing off some of the words.

Severus shook his head, trying not to smile. "I can't believe you are actually going through with this."

"Well, I am, "Lily responded as she wrote the word 'anecdote' over a certain word that rhymes with fire truck and begins with the same letter as fire truck does. She paused for a moment after she finished, wondering what word to write next. "Say Sev, how do you spell aphrodisiac?"

Severus raised an eyebrow as the corner his upper lip curled upwards before giving her the correct spelling. He always loved it when Lily asked him questions, expecting him to know the answer; it made him feel intelligent and strong. Powerful. Then: "Lily."

"Yes?"

"Do you know what an aphrodisiac is?"

"Isn't it something that causes excitement? "Said Lily, a slightly confused look on her face. "Like…visiting the theatre, or watching a dramatic film?"

Severus smirked. "Well… I suppose one could say you are technically right , in the loosest sense of the word." He then leaned down to whisper the real definition of the word into Lily's ear and how it is commonly used.

Severus roared with laughter as Lily's cheeks flushed scarlet and she hastily attempted to abolish the word from the slide she had just written it on. "You know, "he remarked, still laughing, as he wiped a tar of mirth from his eye," it really is quite ironic… here you are trying to exterminate those…less than appropriate words on the children's playing equipment…only to write words just like those, albeit more sophisticated."

"I-I didn't know, "Lily stammered, still blushing.

"You know, "Snape joked. "I highly doubt you are going to be made prefect Lily, if this kind of behavior keeps up…"

"The letters come out next week, I heard, "she commented. "If I don't become one, I'll give you my last box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans."

"And if you miraculously do, "Supplied Snape." I will give you a chocolate frog."

He was only joking about her not becoming one; it was blaringly obvious to both of them she would. Needless to say, Lily Evans was happily eating a chocolate frog next week.

**A/N: Believe it or not, Lily's reaction to the graffiti on the playground is based on a true story. I know someone who never noticed this until recently and was shocked. I couldn't help but find the whole thing hilarious. Also, Snape's mom having an affair may become very important later on…;D. **

**About that blink and you'll miss it line where Snape recalls teaching Lily swears in exchange for kisses when they were younger, that will pop up in a flashback in chapter 4…**

**Just a heads up: Next chapter's going to be pretty intense .XD**

**Please review! ~:) **


	3. Sirius Mayhem

**A/N: Before this chapter starts, I would just like to address a couple of points that came up. When Snape came over to Lily's house last chapter, Mrs. Evans didn't comment on his damaged face. The reason is because she has known Severus for years and has seen him with injuries like this before. Now, she suspects that Severus is being abused at home of course, but as she has no proof there's not much she can do, so she occasionally asks him about it, but he always tells her he injured himself doing something for Hogwarts. Severus doesn't tell her what his dad's doing because he doesn't trust Muggles, so he figures telling someone won't make a difference or may even make the situation even worse. As she cannot disprove Severus, Mrs. Evans has not called child services or anything like that, even though she wants to. She also does not because she know it could risk exposure of the wizarding world, and she may get in trouble. In addition, I do not know how effective or strong child protection laws were in England during the Marauder Era(the 1970s) so it may be possible that even if she did call child services nothing much would change. **

**As for why Snape's mom hasn't stood up to her husband using her magic…well, there actually is a really legitimate reason for that…. That I shall reveal later on. ;D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this fanfic except for my OCs. **

Chapter 3: Sirius Mayhem

When Mary Macdonald did not come to class the day after she was attacked, not many people noticed but for the few that did just assumed she was sick and in the hospital wing. They were half right, at any rate. None of the Gryffindors who had been with Mary reported what had happened to their classmates; Madam Pomfrey had given them strict orders not to until they were all interviewed to determine what really happened. As for Mulciber, he was suspended from class before he could even speak of the event to any of his classmates; his father had arrived at school to have an interview with the school board with his son, determining whether or not the curse he used was worthy of expulsion. It wasn't until the next morning, when people noticed that both Mary and Mulciber had not been seen for nearly two days that the school began buzzing about what was going on. It was no secret that Mulciber had a fondness for the dark arts; he had gotten into trouble before for using Dark Magic. Did he use any on Mary? To add to the excitement, James Potter, Sirius, Black Remus Lupin, and Lily Evans were all absent called out of class that morning and did not return until lunch.

The reason for their temporary absence was because when Dumbledore went to visit Mary in the Hospital Wing to hear her side of the story pertaining to the events of the other night, all of the students involved-including Mulciber-had to be interviewed as well in order to fully comprehend the situation. Mulciber was returned to classes Friday afternoon; however whether or not he would finally be expelled would not be determined until the end of the period, when Mulciber would be summoned to the Headmaster's office to receive the final verdict. He would remain in class until then.

Students all asked the Gryffindors-aside from Mary, who was still hospitalized- about what had happened. All four told a slightly censored version of the story under the orders of the Headmaster; they excluded the part about Mary having a job in Hogsmeade. They claimed that Mary had been on her way to bed when Mulciber ran into her and started harassing her, so she snapped at him, before he proceeded to curse her.

They were prohibited to tell the other student's about Mary's job, so this version was more or less the gist of what happened censoring them being in Hogsmeade (it would look suspicious for Mary to be in Hogsmeade without mentioning her job, so the Hogsmeade part was exterminated entirely in their retelling, and the entire incident took place at Hogwarts, rather than just half of it).

Even Mulciber was prohibited from telling about Mary's job, and miraculously enough he too respected the Headmaster's wishes in that respect. In fact, Mulciber had no qualms about censoring the story whatsoever. So much so that he would tell his Slytherin buddies that Mary had randomly approached Mulciber after curfew saying all of those nasty things she had said to him, only in this version she had no good reason to do so; he decided to conveniently forget the fact he had been sexually harassing and even downright assaulting her and that she was perfectly in the right to stand up for herself, even if that did mean she said some rather unpleasant things as well. No, in Mulciber's story, he was the victim. Mary Macdonald had been unnecessarily cruel to him and he was only giving her "what she deserved."

But more on that later.

The class the fifth year Gryffindors had right after lunch was Potions, a class shared between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins. The entire class had heard the story at lunch, whether it be Mulciber's version or the Gryffindor's version. Well, almost the entire class. Karen Smith, as usual, hadn't the foggiest idea what was going on.

Karen Smith was known as "Slytherin's Brainless Beauty" for a reason. With her fair skin, wide hazel eyes, stunningly pretty coppery brown hair that cascaded past her shoulder blades, a stellar smile and gentle facial features, she was undeniably beautiful. Unfortunately, she wasn't perceived as being anywhere near as intelligent as she was attractive by her peers; even her own housemates mocked her lack of intelligence. By her fifth year, it had become slang known to everyone at Hogwarts except for the first years during the first month of the year to refer to making a very dumb mistake as "pulling a Karen Smith." Karen had become infamous for her vastly less than intelligent behavior. How she had made it to fifth year was the biggest mystery at Hogwarts; just last week she had asked Slughorn what a cauldron was. One might find this funny had they not realized Karen was actually dead serious.

Karen's… confusion, for lack of a better word, was often quiet amusing to spectators though. Sometimes the Marauders even looked forward to Potions simply because Karen was almost guaranteed to do or say something hilarious as a result of her ignorance. She was also an excellent person to pull pranks on. Harmless ones, of course :Karen Smith was one of the few Slytherins they actually liked-and they knew who could take a joke-, so they made sure none of their jokes were ever mean or would upset Karen.

Today, though, they were in a foul mood as they caught sight of the Slytherins in Potions. They were all furious at him for what he had done to Mary.

He noticed their presence and talked loud enough so that they could overhear him, "You know how MacDonald's been absent for the past couple of days Avery? Well,-"

"Marlene's been absent?" Karen piped up.

Both boys stared at her quizzically for a moment before Avery realized what she meant.

"Her name's not Marlene, Karen, "he explained. "Her name's Mary Macdonald. You're thinking of Marlene Mckinnon."

Karen still looked confused.

"Do you remember back in first year when we all put on the school production of Mary Macdonald Had a Farm? "Avery pressed.

"Oh God, don't remind me, "Mulciber griped. "I still cannot believe the school not only let us, but forced us to reenact a play based off of a filthy Muggle song!"

Avery nodded in agreement. "Bloody disgusting, that was. "He turned back to Karen. "Do you remember the girl who played the star of the show?"

Karen nodded.

"That was Mary Macdonald, "Avery informed her.

Sure enough, a look of comprehension dawned on Karen's ordinarily clueless features."Oh, I remember that play! It was so much fun; I got to play a sheep! "She reminisced happily.

"Fun?" Snape had arrived. "How in the hell was acting out that monstrous-"

"Actually Karen," Avery spoke over him. "You played a cow, not a sheep."

"No, I played a sheep, "Karen spoke as if she were explaining the facts of life to a five year old. "Sheep go MOOO!" Several people in the vicinity jumped; if nothing else, Karen Smith was good at impersonating animals and could mimic the sound of any given animal. In fact, a few of these classmates actually believed for a moment a cow had somehow gotten on school grounds until realizing Karen had just produced the noise.

"Er, no Karen, cows go moo. Sheep go baaahh." Avery explained.

"Oy Prongs, "Sirius exclaimed loudly for everyone within the proximity to hear. "Do you remember what part Mulciber played during our school production of Mary Macdonald Had a Farm back in first year?"

"Oh that's easy Padfoot," James replied. "He was an utter jackass." There were some laughs in the crowd as people understood the double entendre.

"What's a jackass?" Karen solicited innocently.

"A donkey," Sirius answered swiftly. "He was most certainly a jackass, wouldn't you say Karen?"

"Oh yes, totally,"Karen agreed. " It was the part he was born to play!"

Several people in the crowd-even people from Mulciber's own house- howled with laughter. "What's so funny?"Karen was still oblivious to the joke. Really, everyone except Mulciber, Avery, Snape and Karen were laughing.

"You think your funny, you two-"Mulciber began before James interrupted.

"We don't think we're funny, we _know_ we're funny."

Mulciber was about to retort when right at that moment Slughorn came bustling down the corridor to permit them to enter the dungeons. The class took their usual seats, still chattering.

"Anyway, "Mulciber carried on as if he had not been interrupted as he sat down." You're probably wondering why Macdonald is not here to-"

"Oh, I know why she's not here"Said Kanre. The entire class fell silent: Could Karen actually be knowledgeable about something for once?

"Mary's been kidnapped by clowns." Karen announced

Avery blinked. "What's a clown?"

"An Inferius in its natural state,"Karen replied.

"Who cares,"snapped Mulciber."As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted-"

"Settle down, settle down," Slughorn attempted to get the class's attention. Once he finally did, he proceeded,"Today I will partner one Slytherin and one Gryffindor each to work together to brew a potion. Each Slytherin student and each Gryffindor student will receive the same grade for the potion they produced together; therefore, I expect no sabotage, lest it impact your own grade as well as your partner's. Now-"

"Excuse me Professor,"Mulciber said in a tone of mock concern. "But it appears that Gryffindor House is missing one of its members. We have an odd number of students today, it seems. What should we do about that?"He smirked in the general direction of where the majority of the Gryffindors were seated. Almost every single Gryffindor in their class sent glares in his direction. The only exception being Mary, who was in the Hospital Wing, although she undoubtedly would have done the same if not much worse had she been there.

Even Slughorn sensed what Mulciber was up to. "I was going to say, before you ever so impolitely interrupted me, Mulciber, was that there would be one group of two Slytherins and one Gryffindor. Every other group would consist of one Gryffindor and one Slytherin. Perhaps if you tried listening sometimes, you would understand what is going on, Mulciber."

Slughorn's gooseberry eyes scanned the classroom in contemplation momentarily. His decision may have seemed foolhardy to some, in recent light of events most recent, yet Slughorn believed this idea may actually be prosperous; if students from both houses were paired together, they could not harm one another or sabotage the other's work without running the risk of ruining their own grade. Thus, this should serve as an incentive for them to behave. Now, who should he pair his students with? He decided with the group of three. He did not want the sole Gryffindor in that group to be meek, but at the same time not be too headstrong. He settled on Lily Evans. However, he did not want his favorite student paired up with some of the brutes from his house (even Slughorn acknowledged there were a couple of bad eggs in his house) so almost all of the Slytherin boys were out of the question, except for Severus Snape. Snape and Lily it was then. Just one more… His eyes scanned the Slytherin girls. Unsurprisingly, they were much better behaved and mature than their male counterparts. Any of them would do. He decided to pick one at random in his head.

"The group consisting of three people will contain Severus Snape, Lily Evans, and…Karen Smith." He decided. He knew that his two prized potion pupils excelled at potions so well that not even Karen could unintentionally ruin their potion(unintentionally, being as Karen would never attempt to sabotage another person's work);it was a win win situation. If only the rest of the class were so easy…

"Potter you will be paired with…. Miss Zellar," Slughorn announced after he had paired off the majority of the class a few minutes later. James groaned, although he supposed it could have been worse. After all, he could have been paired with Avery or Mulciber. Zoe Zellar was James' rival on the Quidditch field; she was one of Slytherin House's Chasers. Needless to say, they did not get on very well.

"Mr. Lupin and..Avery,"Slughorn had very few options left. The only students left were Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, Malum Mulciber, and a Slytherin girl who did not come off as being particularly threatening, achieved decent potions grades and would most likely not attempt to hex the living daylights out of Pettigrew, unlike Mulciber. On the other hand, Sirius and Mulciber spelled trouble, but at least Sirius could defend himself, and hopefully both boys would have enough common sense not to have a go at each other during class.

"Mulciber and Black, Pettigrew and Miss…Johnson? "Come to think of it, he did not even remember the girl's name after teaching her for over four years; that really was quite remarkable. "Any problems?" If he heard the girl politely mumble her surname was not Johnson, he ignored it. "Very well then, get to work."

As the students seated themselves appropriately and gathered their ingredients, Sirius glared daggers at Mulciber the entire time. Yes, he had insulted Mulciber in front of the entire class, but that did not compensate for what Mulciber had done to Mary. Mary, who Sirius had not ever, in over four years of knowing her, ever seen express any signs of vulnerability up until that night, where she lay writhing on the ground and on the hospital bed, screaming. He had heard that curse was almost half as bad as the Cruciatus curse. How could Mulciber not get expelled for this? Sirius strongly hoped he would be. He had to give Mary credit though; not once, despite all the pain she was experiencing, did she ever cry as far as he could see. She seemed to retain as much dignity as possible in a situation such as that, which was saying something. Although, in a situation like that, dignity was the last thing on your mind.

Meanwhile at the table of three, Snape had left to fetch the ingredients for the girls; he always offered to retrieve the potions ingredients when working with Lily and did not trust Karen to gather the supplies without doing something stupid. He was both pleased and disappointed with the seating arrangement. Pleased because he got to be with Lily, and disappointed because Karen had to be with them too. He knew it wasn't her fault, but he had wanted to work with Lily alone. The did not see each other anywhere near as often as he would have liked, and he preferred their time together to be spent alone. Of course, if he had his way, there would be scarcely a second of the day when he and Lily were separated.

While Snape gathered the materials, Karen exclaimed eagerly to Lily, "I'm so glad we get to be potions partners Lily! We always work so well together, don't you think?"

"Oh, um…yes," Lily did not know how to honestly answer this. In fairness though, Karen did have a point. They usually got good grades when they worked together…if only because Lily did most of the work and gave Karen specific instructions about what to do.

"And you're such a good teacher Lily! "Karen pressed on." Do you remember when you tutored me last year?"

"Yes." _How could I forget?_ Lily though this but did not say it out loud. Karen was easily the most ignorant student Lily had ever tutored. Still, she tried very hard, and Lily admired her for that. After all, many people would get very disheartened after trying so hard and failing so many times, but Karen never gave up. Not even once.

"I think I learned more with you than any of the other tutors I ever went through! By the way, "a curious look passed on Karen's face. " Why was everyone laughing at what I said earlier?"

"Oh, well, you inadvertently made what is known as a double entendre Karen,"Lily began before she realized Karen probably did not understand half of what she had just said. " A double entendre is when you say something that has more than one meaning. "

"Like peanut allergies?"Said Karen.

"What?"Said Lily, unsure if she could have heard right.

"Well,"Karen elucidated. "if you have a peanut allergy it means one of two things:You are either allergic to peanuts, or you are going nuts."

"…Karen who told you that?" Lily did not know whether or not she should laugh or cry that Karen actually thought that.

Karen pointed to James, who was currently having an argument with Zoe Zellar.

"No Potter, I already got half of our ingredients. You go retrieve the other half. "Zoe flipped her golden hair over her shoulder.

"Well, as I am the better flier on the pitch than you are and Gryffindor House won the Quidditch Cup last year,"He smirked, feet propped up on the desk lazily. "I believe that you should be a good loser and go get the stuff; it'll help keep you in shape for our next match,. I'll still win of course, make no mistake about that;I am just feeling in a generous sort of mood today, so that maybe when you lose again next time your house won't be as ashamed, since they came in slightly closer than last time."

"Need I remind you Potter,"Zoe snapped, amber eyes flashing."That Slytherin actually beat Gryffindor in the last game we played against each other. Your house may have won the cup last yea, but we still beat you in the actual match."

"Details, details,"Sighed James."Now be a dear and go retrieve the god da-"

"James!"Lily interrupted, looking mildly annoyed.

"Yes?"James' voice immediately became deeper and more mature sounding.

"Why did you feel it necessary to tell Karen that having a peanut allergy could be a sign of insanity?" Lily could not believe she was actually having to ask him something like this.

"just for a laugh, that's all, "James shrugged.

"Wait, so they're _not_ a sign of insanity?"Said Karen.

"No Karen they're not,"Zoe quipped."But _someone_ actually saying something as _ludicrous_ as that to somebody may well be a sign of _stupidity_." She sent James a falsely welcoming glance as she said this, in a voice as sweet as honey.

Snape overheard this and chuckled as he walked back to his table; he and Zoe were not good friends, per say, but she was certainly more likeable in his opinion than most of the other people in this ridiculous school. At any rate, it was always nice to see someone other than him deflating Potter's almost infinite ego, regardless of who it was.

"Found that funny, did you Snivellus, "James remarked. A hush fell over the class.

"Well yes,"Snape smirked."It's nice to know that I'm not the only one here who understands what an imbecile you are."

"It's nice to know I'm not the only one who realizes how ugly you are,"James shjot back. A couple of people gasped at this, but Sirius and Peter howled with laughter. Several other people joined in.

"Now really,"Slughorn interjected."That was really uncalled for-"

Snape raised his wand at James. "_Langlock!"_

James felt his tongue being bound in his mouth; it was not a pleasant feeling, to say the least. He tried to talk but, as his tongue was bound, was only able to produce an incoherent string of odd sounds. Some of the Slytherins-including Snape of course-laughed.

"Stop this at once!" Slughorn thundered.

Snape ignored him and performed a different spell on James this time. _"Levicorpus!" _ James found himself floating into the air, turned upside down and the only thing he could register was that he was terrified yet very relieved he was wearing trousers underneath his robes or else-

"_Severus_!"Snape suddenly felt an arm grasp his, and looked into Lily's face. Etched onto her beautiful features was a look he had never wanted to cause to yet had appear there: Fear.

"_Liberacorpus_,"he muttered after he had levitated James down to about half a foot above the floor and James dropped to the ground. None of his bones were broken, nor was he in any danger of begin seriously injured, but he was in pain nonetheless. "_Finite." _Snape added reluctantly so that Potter's tongue uncurled itself.

"Detention for both of you!"Slughorn bellowed. "Outrageous! My God, honestly, you are fifth years, behave yourselves!"He turned to James."Black will accompany you to the Hospital Wing." Sirius grabbed his bag, stood up, and escorted James out of the room."And you!"he turned to Snape."I expect you to report to Dumbledore immediately!" Snape left without a word.

* * *

"…Can't believe old Sluggy gave you detention when you were the one who got jinxed!" Sirius continued to rant as they walked to the hospital wing. "Granted, that greasy little git got detention too, but really, I don't see why you should be in trouble; you were just telling it like it is!"

Although James did not fell like speaking, he was nodding his head fervently in assent, a pout plastered on his face. "Well, Madam Pomfrey should be able to fix you up. I've never heard of any of those spell before that Snivellus used earlier. Have you?"

James shook his head.

Sirius suddenly looked very excited. "Maybe if it's Dark Magic we can get him expelled!"

James snapped. "And what good would that do?"

Sirius blinked. "Mate, I'm sorry if it sounded like I thought it was exciting or anything. Because I didn't. I was actually-"

"I know what you mean,"James assured him and meant it; he always understood Sirius. " I know you want Snivellus to be expelled so we never have to see him grease up the halls again. But I was just thinking. Yes, he would be gone. But there are others like him out there. Death Eaters, I mean. I don't have any actual proof, but we all know where that slimy git is heading; Lily's just too kind and naïve to admit or see it. There will still be others like him out there. Mulciber, Avery. I wouldn't be surprised if they become Death Eaters before we even graduate. Maybe it's possible they already are.

No, the only thing that could stop that lot would be if they died. Snivellus could always obtain another wand if he got expelled and just use all of the magic he uses already to wreak havoc on the world. Same goes for Mulciber, Avery, and the rest. Yes, they snap your wand when you get expelled, but that doesn't eliminate the possibility of obtaining another one and just practicing all of the Dark Magic you already know and learn more from other death Eaters. Not that I hope Mulciber doesn't get expelled, I just don't see how that could do much good. I suppose it's better than him sticking around here though."

They reached the Hospital Wing.

"Hey, Mary's probably in here,"Sirius realized."Do you want to say hello?"

"I suppose,"James shrugged as they entered. Mary was sitting up in one of the beds. A beautiful blonde girl was perched on a chair next to the bed. They appeared to be in conversation but stopped short as soon as they saw James and Sirius enter the room.

Madam Pomfrey spotted them instantly."What is it this time boys?"

James explained the situation. " …and so Professor Slughorn wanted to make sure I wasn't injured in any way that you could see."

Madam Pomfrey took out her wand, and cast an incantation neither James nor Sirius recognized. "You are in no danger as far as I can recognize Potter." She looked at the clock. "It is roughly a ten minute walk from here to the dungeons, and there are only fifteen minutes left of classes. Perhaps it would be best if you stay here, since you must still be in shock. Yes, I think a little lie down is all you need. After this period ends, you may proceed to your next class. Unless you truly are still in shock. And don't even think of pretending to be in shock when you're not Mr. Potter,"She added, sensing what James was thinking. "I know you well enough by now to know when you are faking and when you are serious."

"May I stay here too, Madam Pomfrey?" Sirius inquired. "Slughorn would want me to make sure James was okay before taking him back to class, I believe, based on past experiences."

Madam Pomfrey considered this for a moment, before deciding,"very well Mr. Black, if that is what you wish. However, if I sense any rowdiness from you I will not hesitate to kick you out for disrupting the patient. Understood?"

"Of course,"Sirius smiled dazzlingly. Sirius then noticed the seat next to Mary was now vacant. "Where did the blonde girl go who was here earlier?"

"She left, "Mary stated simply.

"Who was she anyway?"Sirius pulled over a couple another chair over to Mary's bed.

"That's really none of your business, Black. Why are you moving that chair over here? " James and Sirius had placed themselves by Mary's be when she was speaking.

"We have some time to kill,"Sirius remarked offhandedly. "Let's talk."

"About?" Mary raised an eyebrow.

"Anything you want,"Sirius suggested. "How have you been you doing lately?"

"Oh, just swimmingly,"Mary replied, voice dripping with sarcasm." It's really lovely being stuck in doors with nothing to do except school work, and even then there's a lot of free time left over, where the only activities you may engage in are pondering and lamenting."

"Not too well then?"James inferred.

"What was your first clue?"Mary snarked.

"I can understand why you'd be rather bored here,"Said James. "I'm bored out of my skull just talking to you right now."

"Always the gentleman, aren't you Potter? "Mary deadpanned.

"Are you always this friendly to people who visit you?"James inquired."Or is it just us?"

"Just you,"Mary answered coolly.

"I feel so honored,"James placed his hand over his heart."What about you Padfoot?"

"Indubitably" Sirius agreed.

"Although,"Mary mused." I haven't really had many visitors so that's not something you should go around bragging about; you two could easily not have been the only ones to receive such reception if I had more visitors."

"Who else has visited you then?"Sirius solicited.

"Well, everyone who visited me this morning for one,"Mary began."And that doesn't really count because it was mandatory. Although Lily's dropped by to give me my homework. "

"And the mysterious blonde who visited just now yet whose name you are unwilling to disclose to us at present, "Sirius added.

"At present?" She raised her eyebrow again. "More like ever."

"Blimey Mary, "James piped up. "Don't you have any friends?"

Sirius could have kicked him. Of all the idiotic things James had ever said, this one certainly made the top ten. Perhaps even the top 5. _If she starts crying any second James, I swear I will kill you. _ Sirius thought to himself.

Yet to Sirius's surprise Mary didn't even cry; in fact, she did not seem moved by what James had said at all. She merely shrugged in response, not seeming to care in the slightest.

Evidently James seemed to realize that even though Mary was unaffected by what he had said, it was still a moronic thing to say so he hastily changed topics. " So, what are you going to do once you get ot of here?"

Mary stared quizzically at him."What do you mean?"

"Well,"he began."Are you going to do anything special once you get out? Aren't you going to try to get Mulciber back? He might be expelled, but you could still get revenge somehow."

" Is it definite that he will be expelled then?" Mary tried to keep her voice level, but her eyes shone with excitement, something they seldom did.

"Well we don't know for certain as of now," Sirius explained."But Mulciber was sent to class with us for today while the school board decides that. They were actually supposed to summon him at the end of class, which should be right about now actually. They will tell him what his punishment is…right about now actually. And if he stays, he just goes on to class next period. "

"So, how are you going to get him back?" James grinned.

Mary glanced at him incredulously. "Are you daft? I'm not going to do something like that."

"What?!"James spluttered, completely losing his cool. Even Sirius looked surprised.

"He comes from an influential family of Dark Wizards,"Mary elucidated, slightly taken aback by their reactions." Of course I'm going to try and stay clear of him; it's for my own safety. Hurting him won't solve anything anyway. It's just common sense. That's like looking for someone who wants you dead. What types of fools do these sorts of things?"

James and Sirius shifted uncomfortably; they were the types of fools Mary was talking about.

"I'm not saying if he ever bothers me again I won't do anything,"Mary went on."For his sake he better not, unless he wants to be sent to Hell and back by the time I'm through with him. I don't forgive easily; Mulciber better watch himself, now that I loathe the very core of him. I am not afraid of him. I can protect myself ;I've faced worse than Mulciber."

This completely threw James and Sirius.

"What do you mean you've faced worse than Mulciber?"Sirius demanded.

Before Mary could respond, Madam Pomfrey bustled over. "All right boys, I think you should return to class now."

"But-"

"Out now, "Madam Pomfrey said not unkindly but sternly all the same."The patient needs her rest."

* * *

All throughout their next class(transfiguaration) the marauders and really almost everyone in class silently prayed Mulciber would get expelled; everyone in the room had heard about what had transpired between Mulciber and Mary and were all disgusted with him. Incidentally, this was not a class the Gryffindors shared with the Slytherins. As they boys practiced Vanishing Spells, James and Sirius divulged what had happened at the hospital wing.

"What does she mean when she says she faced worse than Mulciber?"Remus wondered once they finished speaking.

"We don't know,"Sirus lamented. "Madam Pomfrey kicked us out before she could tell us. Although I suspect she probably wouldn't have told us anyway even if we stayed."

"That's a very frightening thought,"Remus stated thoughtfully."I mean, what could she have ever experienced that was worse than sexual harassment and assault, _and_ Dark Magic all in one night?"

"Wait a moment, James stepped in." When was there sexual assault involved?"

Remus stared at him in disbelief, and then noticed Sirius and Peter had the same looks of confusion on their faces as James had. "Let's think for a moment. He kissed her without her consent and she had to resort to _kicking him in the balls_ just to get him to stop. Obviously, he did not just kiss her because he thought she would like that and stopped as soon as he noticed she didn't want him to do that. Kissing someone _against their will _to the point where the only way one can defend oneself is to resort to physical violence as _self-defense_ is something I would definitely classify as sexual assault."

Sirius and James' faces paled a bit; they hadn't quite grasped the gravity of that aspect when Mary told them about it that morning. Naturally, they had not found it acceptable in any way shape or form when they heard it and knew what Mulciber had done was wrong and absolutely _not_ Mary's fault; just how grave his misdeed was did not entirely sink in until now. They had been paying so much attention to the Dark Arts part of the whole experience they almost overlooked this.

Remus hesitated a moment before speaking again. He Vanished his snail as McGonagall walked by noticing his progress.(He had been working and listening to his friends simultaneously) "Excellent work as usual Lupin. "She then turned to the rest of the group, who had not even started. She looked as if she were about to scold them for a moment, but walked away instead; McGonagall had appreciated the amount of support the boys had offered Mary recently, and evidently was in a generous mood towards them for the time being. She had not even questioned what they were doing up after hours the night before when they found Mary.

Although Peter had not been with them that night, she chose not to say anything to him about his lack of progress; he could always point out she hadn't said anything to James and Sirius.

"Anyway, "Remus muttered. "Let's just say the situation had been a bit different. What if Mary had not known where to kick him to get him to back off? Or what if he had used some Dark Spell on her that could prevent her from moving? Or if she wasn't physically strong enough to get him off of her? God only knows what could have happened-"

"Remus we get it,"Sirius stopped him. Sirius did not want to think any more on this topic. Yet he couldn't help it. If Mary had faced worse than a teenage boy who sexually assaulted her and used Dark Magic on her, what _else_ had she experienced that was worse than that? He concluded she was not well off,to say the least. Sirius had never heard of any Hogwarts student having a job in Hogsmeade other than Mary , and he had not found that out until last night, despite knowing her for over four years. Come to think of it though, despite knowing Mary for that long, he barely even knew her at all really. They had never interacted much.

Anyway, Mary was not the only poor student who attended Hogwarts. Why did none of them have permission from the school to have jobs on weekdays after curfew but Mary did? That must mean her financial circumstances surpassed poor. If she was as poor as he speculated she was –though he had to give her some credit; the way she dressed and acted would not give anyone the impression she came from a financially disastrous back round- she most likely lived in a _very _bad neighborhood. Possibly a very dangerous one. He tried not to dwell on this and what may or may not have happened to Mary.

Class ended at long last and the students filed out of the classroom. For once the boys found themselves looking _for_ Mulciber. It was a very strange sensation. They stopped when they saw him standing in the courtyard , talking to Snape and Avery.

"Oy Mulciber,"James called. "Shouldn't you be getting the train home?"

"Of course not Potter,"Mulciber smirked. " Why would I? Surely you do not actually think I am expelled, do you?"

James stopped in his tracks."What?"

"Have a nice day Potter,"Mulciber laughed and walked off with Avery and Snape, who were sniggering and smirking as smugly as he.

* * *

"How is he not expelled?"James ranted back in their dormitory. "This isn't even the first time he's used Dark Magic before!"

"His father visited the school I heard,"Remus theorized. " It's probably safe to assume he bribed the school governors or threatened them with his connections." He looked out the window nervously. James noticed he looked rather pale and then suddenly remembered why.

"Oh my God, it's full moon tonight isn't it? "He realized.

Remus nodded, eyes still fixated on the window. "Yeah, I'm going to have to leave immediately after dinner tonight."

Meanwhile, Sirius lay on his stomach on his bed, a look of deep contemplation on his face. If his friends had been paying more attention to him, they might have noticed that the Marauder's Map was propped open right in front of him. He got out of bed and stood up. "I'm going to go to the bathroom. Don't follow me."

"If you fall in, call me," James hollered over his shoulder as Sirius exited the room before he promptly returned to ranting.

In reality, Sirius had a different location in mind that he intended to go to. He exited the common room and walked towards the courtyard. Sure enough Mulciber, Avery, and Snape were still there, only in a different area of it now.

Mulciber had just finished bragging to Snape and Avery about what had transpired between him and Mary. Or rather, he was giving the censored version of the story, unbeknownst to Sirius. In this story, he never harassed or assaulted Mary. He wasn't even in Hogsmeade in this version; he had simply been up late, ran into Mary in the halls by accident, resulting in her spewing all of the awful things she had said, only this time for no justified reason, and he cursed her as "punishment".

"And while I'm not expelled for all of that of course,"Mulciber was saying now. "I still have to serve detention every day for three months and am prohibited from going to Hogsmeade until I serve all of my detentions. Despite the fact I was only giving that cold hearted bint a taste of her own medicine and teaching her a lesson or two in manners, _I'm_ the one getting punished. Ridiculous."

Meanwhile, Snape had not been having a good day. When Slughorn sent him to Dumbledore, Dumbledore gave him detention every day for a week. Something which was grossly unfair in Snape's opinion; after all, Potter had insulted him first and he was only receiving one detention. Moreover, he had frightened Lily, and was remorseful about that. Suffice to say, he had been in a bad day. He needed to vent. "You're absolutely right of course,"he agreed. "If anyone should be getting punished it should be her; that bitch got exactly what she deserved."

Something within Sirius burst like a dam. So, it was Mary's fault _Mulciber_ chose to harass and assault her? She deserved to be Cursed simply for _defending_ herself? Sirius was at the moment, still unseen by the boys for he was hidden behind a pillar he was leaning against that was not facing them.

"Hey Snape, you coming with us? "Avery was questioning Snape.

'I can't,"Said Snape. "I have to write that stupid History of Magic Paper Binns assigned us. And since I have that detention to serve after dinner I might as well start that now, since I have detention every night and won't have as much time to work on it."

Mulciber and Avery nodded and walked off. Snape sat down under a nearby beech tree . Sirius strolled towards him. "All right there, Snivellus?"

Snape reached for his wand and was about to pull it out when Sirius stopped him.

"Oh, keep your greasy hair on for crying out loud Snivellus,"Sirius rolled his eyes."I'm not going to attack you."

"Then what do you want Black?"Snape spat, not putting his wand away just yet.

"I just thought you might be interested," Sirius leaned on the tree casually." To know that if you go inside the Whomping Willow tonight as it's full moon and keep going, well… you might see an interesting sight."

"Oh, and just how exactly do I get inside?"Snape had no idea what Black was up to but…. Perhaps Lupin would be there, if he understood Sirius's innuendo correctly. Perhaps he would finally catch Lupin and reveal him once and for all for what he really was. It was for everyone's own safety, honestly. More importantly, it was for Lily's. He recalled her scared face today in Potions.

If ever that look ever crossed her features again, he vowed, it would _never_ be because of him. And he would eliminate anyone who _could_ scare his ordinarily fearless Lily like that, or who posed any danger towards her. Oh, his friends didn't count, even though he knew Lily did not like them. Despite the fact some of his friends were blood purists, they had amazingly enough never caused Lily a spec of trouble, if only for one reason; he wouldn't let them. Everyone in Slytherin knew of Snape's reputation with the dark Arts, and many had seen him perform them first hand. They all knew he was the Slytherin who was most advanced in the Dark Arts, and they all had the sense enough not to do anything to aggravate him.

Everyone knew Snape was fond of Lily, and he had warned his friends ahead of time that if they ever did anything to harm her, there would be Hell to pay. Due to the fact that it was common knowledge as to just how skilled in the Dark Arts Severus was, no one dared disobey him when it came to this topic. None of the Slytherins-or really anyone at Hogwarts for that matter- would ever bully Lily as long as Snape was alive unless they were asking for a death sentence. That's not to say no one ever called her a Mudblood behind her back, but even that didn't happen very often, and that was the only unpleasant thing anyone ever said about Lily, that she was a Mudblood. As of now, no one had ever even said it to her face.

Though Lily may have disliked them, Lily was not scared of his friends, he knew. So there was no need to get rid of them. They posed no danger towards her. Now Lupin on the other hand….

He decided he would listen to Black just this once, as Sirius told him all he needed to know on how to get inside the Whomping Willow. It wouldn't be until a few hours alter that Sirius would realize the gravity of what he had done.

**A/N…And that was the night Snape discovered Remus was a werewolf and could have died. Originally this chapter was only going to be about 500 words…but then I realized that Snape could have died so I figured there had to be **_**several**_** reasons why Sirius would actually do something like this. He-childish though it undoubtedly is- has had a bad day and is taking out his frustration on Snape, whom he hates. It didn't help the fact that Snape-who wasn't exactly having a great day either- insulted Mary Macdonald(in fairness though, Mulciber did not tell him the whole story) . Sirius wasn't exactly too pleased about that. (*Hint: The interactions between Sirius and Mary will become very important later on ;D) I also like to think that Sirius wasn't thinking when he told Snape that, and it wasn't until after he did that that the reality of the danger he was putting Snape in hit him. **

**Also, yes, my OC Karen Smith really is just a blatant rip off of the character of the same name in Mean Girls. They're not the same character though; they have similar personalities and the same name, but they actually are not the same person. **

**Another thing I would like to clarify is that Mary Macdonald was never raped at any point in her life in this fanfic. I was reading this and realized some people may theorize that, so just to get that out of the way, no she was not. She has had some rather disturbing experiences though. **

**Questions to consider for next time: Who is the mysterious blonde who visited Mary? Why was Avery-who will one day be a Death Eater- being nice to Karen? **

**Please review!:D **


	4. Unorthodox Childhood Romance of sorts

**A/N: Thank you very much to everyone who has followed, added to favorites, or reviewed! *Hands out cyber cake* . I realized last chapter that I made my OC Zoe Zellar blonde, so I would just like to clarify that she is not the same mysterious blonde who visited Mary in the hospital wing; otherwise Sirius and James would have recognized her. There are still quite a few possibilities as to who she could be though…**

**In addition, this chapter is a flashback back to when Snape and Lily are ten because I promised at the end of chapter 2 I would explain a line from that chapter and what was it about…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters used in this fanfic.**

Chapter 4: Unconventional Childhood Romance

The two ten year olds stared up at the beautiful cherry blossom tree as they lay on the ground.

"I can make them yellow," Lily rolled over to look at Severus. "If I squint really hard at them for about ten seconds. " Lily squinted, and soon enough, the pale pink cherry blossoms turned primrose yellow.

Severus was impressed. "That's really amazing Lily."

"Thanks" she beamed. "Have you ever done this before?"

"Of course," Severus lied. "I can turn the entire tree…rainbow."

"Really?" Lily's face lit up in astonishment. "Do you think you could show me?"

"Sure. "Severus stared into his best friend's eyes for a moment as he contemplated on what color he would start with. He saw the answer stare back at him.

He squinted as he looked up at the tree, thinking of green fields , summer leaves, and a rather lovey pair of emerald eyes. ..

The section of the tree he was focusing on turned the color of charcoal. He frowned but quickly changed his expression to a look of coolness when he noticed Lily looking at him. "It takes a moment for it to work, you see."

"Oh," Lily believed him. "Okay."

He focused on squinting at the tree again, thinking about the color of Lily's eyes…

The charcoal colored flowers now turned ebony, ignited, turned to ash, and promptly fell on the ground, just feet away from them.

The auburn haired child stared at the tree in horror. True, it was only a small portion of the flowers that were now ashes, but she loved how beautiful the tree looked every spring when the blossoms bloomed for a few weeks and then gradually fell to the ground like autumn leaves.

"Oh S***!" Severus swore. He had been trying so hard to impress Lily, only for it to backfire in his face.

"Why did you do that?" Lily's query broke him out of his silent lamenting.

"Lily, I'm sorry, they usually turn green, I didn't mean to-"

"No not that," Lily stopped him." I mean, why did you say that?"

"Say what?"

"S***" Said Lily.

"Well, my dad says that occasionally when he's mad," Severus explained. "So I guess it must be something people say sometimes when they're mad."

"What does it mean?" Lily asked him.

"…I don't know." Severus conceded.

"What other words like that does your dad say?" Lily inquired.

"Well, he says f*** a lot-"Severus was cut off by a loud screech; Petunia Evans had arrived and was stomping towards them.

"Tuney!"Lily squealed, surprise and welcome evident in her voice.

Severus, on the other hand, was glaring daggers at Petunia. "What do you want?"

Petunia ignored him. "Lily we're going home!"

"Right now?"Lily pouted.

"Now Lily!" Petunia grabbed Lily's hand and yanked her up off the ground.

Petunia then turned to Severus."I can't believe you, saying a word like that. I knew you were terrible, but even I did not realize you were this sordid!"

" Oh, am I?"Severus retorted."Because if I am, then you are what my dad would call a-"The next word Severus said neither Petunia nor Lily had ever heard before, but it was undoubtedly nasty.

Both girls were shocked into silence. It did not take long for Severus to regret his decision.

"How dare you!"Petunia screamed. "Lily, we are leaving!"

"Of course Petunia,"Lily agreed. She gave Severus a cold look before walking away with Petunia.

"Oh ****"Severus cursed as he kicked the tree. Severus inadvertently released some of his magic in his anger: The blossoms on the tree turned forest green.

"Now it works,"Severus grumbled.

Severus did not see Lily again for three days. When he did, it was on Monday when he waited outside of her elementary school. He knew Petunia walked Lily to and from school every day (if only due to their parents' request) and that therefore if he confronted her before or after school he would run into Petunia . However, Lily had told him about something called "recess" at her school.(Severus had been home schooled by his mother in reading, writing, arithmetic, basic mathematics, and general important facts of life he would need to know later on.) At some point in the middle of the day, all of the children in Lily's year would go out on the playground for about half an hour or so. He did not know when Lily had recess, only that it was at some point during the middle of the day. He had arrived at her elementary school at 9:00P.M, approximately half an hour after it commenced. When she would come out for recess, he decided, he would go onto the playground and talk to her.(Right now he was positioned outside the school fence; it might look suspicious if some teacher were to see an unkempt boy who was not a student waiting directly in front of the school building) He'd be willing to wait the whole day if he had to;it was worth talking to her.

The first recess began roughly one hour after he had arrived. He looked up eagerly , hoping to see a flash of dark crimson hair, only to be disappointed when he did:None of the red haired children could possibly be Lily, for they were all far too short and appeared to be in kindergarten, if they're height was anything to go by. Next recess, the children were slightly taller, but still clearly not old enough to be Lily. It then occurred to him that perhaps at this school the younger students had recess first before the older students. In which case, Lily would have the fifth recess, at noon, since she was in fourth grade. This was something Severus found both ironic and baffling, no matter how many times Lily attempted to explain it to him; despite being in her fifth year of elementary school, she was considered to be a "fourth grader" instead of a "fifth grader". Lily clarified this was because one's first year in elementary school was known as kindergarten, and after that came first grade, second grade, and so on. Still, he found it perplexing all the same.

At noon well over 100 students rushed out of the school building onto the playground. Snape climbed over the fence to infiltrate among them; he was almost certain Lily would be there, and did not want to risk missing her from where he was. He examined the heads of the children around him. There were heads of a variety of colors: Brown, black, occasionally blonde, and a few red. He focused on the red, moving towards the owners of that particular hair color. He ignored the stares and whispers a certain amount of children were giving him, as they had never seen him before in their life, and he did leave quite an impression, being so unclean and appearing to be so uncared for. Thankfully, most students were too busy playing to even notice him.

He soon found Lily, chatting with a group of other girls her age. As he approached her, Lily's friends all widened their eyes and pointed towards him. Lily, whose back had been facing him previously, turned to face him.

"Sev?" She blinked.

"Hi Lily,"He replied.

"Lily, do you know this…boy?" One of the girls hesitated, as if unsure whether or not Severus even qualified as human.

"Yes,"Lily answered.

"How?" One of the other girls asked curiously. She did not say this unkindly or hostilely, but glanced nervously at Severus. In fact, all of the girls except for Lily seemed to be a bit on edge; but then again, this was the type of boy all of their parents had warned them to avoid. They said his kind-those boys who looked like they had never seen a bath in weeks, wore hideous clothing, who were more untidy than even the least cleanly and neat boys at their school, who were never in school when they were supposed to be, who may very well be criminals- were dangerous. In addition to the fact they had never met this boy before ,were almost certain he did not even attend their school, and their friend was now conversing with him…suffice to say they were all more than a bit concerned.

"We're friends,"Lily did not understand why her friends were at unease.

"That thing is your friend?"The same girl who had asked Lily if she knew Severus exclaimed.

"Yes,"Lily answered defiantly . "He's my friend." Severus felt a jolt of joy and excitement run through his body as she grabbed his hand. "Come Severus."

She led him over to a different, more private section of the playground. "What did you want to talk about Sev?"

"I…"it then occurred to Severus he did not have any conversation in particular planned. " I just wanted to see you."

"Oh," Was it Severus's imagination or did Lily's cheeks suddenly have an additional pink tinge to them all of a sudden?" I…well…I,um…"

Severus could not believe his ears;was Lily Evans actually stuttering and stammering for once?

"Thanks Sev,"Lily settled on. Lily seemed to find the ground very fascinating for a few minutes before speaking.(Severus looked too but could not understand why Lily kept staring at it)"My parents don't want you to talk to me."

"Why not?" Severus was startled. He knew Lily's mother liked him and her father grudgingly tolerated him(if only because Severus made his daughter happy for some reason). This was the type of thing he would have expected from Petunia, but not her parents.

"I mean," Lily corrected herself." They don't want you to talk in front of me using that …language you used the other day."

"Oh,"Severus understood now."Okay then."

"Tuney told me,"Lily said stiffly," that those words you used were very bad and that no proper person should go around saying them. She was very upset by what you called her. She told our parents; Daddy was furious. The only reason we're still allowed to be friends with each other is because Mummy managed to talk to Daddy saying that you probably didn't know not to use those words and if we told you not to say them and you stopped then it would be ok. I also told Daddy I wouldn't stop crying if he wouldn't let us be friends again. "

Lily, Severus knew, was quite used to getting her way, particularly since whatever she wanted seldom even inconvenienced anyone. Another reason for this was that it was very hard for anyone-especially if they cared about her- to ever say ''no'' to Lily. Lily's eyes would always light up when requesting something, which she would ask in her sweetest and most polite voice, and she would smile hopefully. Who could easily say no to a face like that; supposed it would fall if one did?

There was no major problem with this, since Lily was a very good person. Although, that didn't stop Lily from being slightly spoiled. Oh, Lily did not throw tantrums if, say, she was not allowed an extra cookie for dessert or anything trivial like that. However, if something mattered very much to Lily and she was denied it-such as, Severus's heart filled with euphoria as he realized this, their friendship- she could get very passionate and heated about the matter and the results- namely Lily's behavior- were usually not pretty.

Lily was about to say more when Severus felt a firm hand grip his shoulder.

"Young man,"The owner of the hand was a rather stern looking woman; most likely a recess monitor. "Are you a student at this school?"

"Yes," Severus lied. Had it not been for his dirty hair and the state of his clothes, he might have seemed convincing.

The woman pursed her lips. " What is your name?"

Severus quickly strived to recall the name of any male classmate Lily had ever mentioned."Marcus Browning."

"What class are you in?" The woman solicited.

"Mrs. Hope's,"Severus gave the name of Lily's teacher, hoping against hope that Marcus Browning was in Lily's class. He spared a swift glance at Lily, and judging by the slight, almost unnoticeable nod of her head, this was accurate. He felt a spring of faith shoot through him; perhaps this lady would leave them alone now and he could spend the rest of recess playing with Lily?

"Is that so?" As often was the case in poor Severus's life, he was faced with disappointment yet again. "Some students in Mrs. Hope's class have informed me that they have never seen you before until today."

It was then that Severus noticed the girl who had called him "That thing" with such a level of disdain was standing right behind this-in his opinion- meddling woman. He knew he was trapped so he did the only thing he could:He bolted.

The strict looking woman chased after him. As he was younger and weighed less than her, and she was wearing high heels, Severus figured he more likely than not would be able to escape. That did not prevent him from running as fast as a jackrabbit though; if he was caught, he would be taken to the principal's office, they might be able to find out who his parents were, whom would inevitably be called and possibly get in serious trouble. Although, regardless of how much trouble Severus' parents may or may not be in if he was caught, it would be nothing compared to how much trouble Severus himself would be in if his father found out…

An even more horrific thought occurred to him as he sprinted towards the fence. What if Lily's parents discovered what he had done and forbade him from ever interacting with their daughter again, out of fear of him being a bad influence on her? He hastily started to climb the fence; he was close to the making it to the top now. He looked behind him and saw the monitor was only feet away. He climbed even quicker if possible than he already was. He was so close, when he suddenly felt a hand grab his ankle. He kicked and flailed. He felt his shoe fly off but did not care; he leaped off the fence in the nanosecond the monitor's hand was no longer on him, landing on his feet like a cat. He dashed away, taking a quick look over his shoulder to see Lily's face alight with happiness and relief.

"Here's your shoe back."Lily returned Severus his shoe. He had been waiting for Lily in front of her house for several minutes before Petunia and Lily arrived home from school just now. This was how Lily greeted him, all the while a smile etched on her face.

"Ew Lily, it's the freak again,"Petunia glared at him. "You better come inside before he contaminates you with his cooties."

Snape laughed in her face."Cooties? You actually believe in that?"

"I only believe that freaks have cooties; not all boys." Petunia clarified.

"Tuney!" Lily chastised." You're being mean!"

"So?"Petunia sniffed."He deserves it."

"No he doesn't,"Lily defended. "No one deserves to be talked to that way-"

"Oh who cares Lily,"Petunia snapped."We need to be inside or else Mummy will think this creep kidnapped you."She looked pensive."For all we know, he might."

"Tuney-"Lily began, evidently wanting to argue further but then sighed."Never mind."

"Bye Sev,"Lily waved as Petunia dragged her inside."I'll see you again soon."

Severus met Lily afterschool at the playground in the local park a few days later. Lily had a habit of visiting this spot frequently-whether by herself, with friends, or Petunia-so Severus had purposefully waited there since 3:00P.M in case she showed up. Speaking of which…

His breath caught in his throat, as it always did whenever he saw Lily. She had come here by herself today, evidently. Excellent.

"Hello Lily,"Severus, who had been perched at the top of the slide, overlooking the playground in the park they were in waved fanatically.

Lily looked up, surprised at first, but then simply happy. "Hi, Sev," Lily saluted.

"What do you want to do today?"Severus slid down the slide to join her on the ground.

"Well I was thinking," Lily rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet-a habit she had that Severus found to be rather endearing-, her voice even sweeter than usual. "After you left school a few days ago, my friends keeping asking me about us and telling me you're not safe- not that I believe them,"She assured him." Well, they were having playmate at my house the other day and Petunia dropped by and mentioned you cursing at her. (By the way, she knows you were at school; she told Mummy and Daddy but they didn't believe her.) After that we started having this conversation about swears and I realized that they all know far more than me, but they wouldn't tell me any. So I was wondering, "She leaned over and placed her lips just mere centimeters from his ear. "Could you teach me?"

Severus shivered."But Lily…You're parents-"

"Don't have to know,"she finished for him.

He looked all over the playground; no one was there except them. Theoretically, they should not get caught. Still…

"Lily, I -"His protests immediately were forgotten when she bargained:

"I'll give you a kiss for each swear."

Severu's heart nearly stopped."What?" Had he heard her precisely?

She gestured towards the bag she had brought with her to the playground. "I brought some Hershey kisses for us to share as a snack." She pulled out a smaller bag containing said candy.

"Oh,"said Severus. True, chocolate was very good, and he enjoyed it immensely whenever Lily gave him some as he did not have any at home, but it probably paled in comparison to the type of kisses he had in mind…

"What's wrong?"Lily had thought he'd be pleased.

A very mischievous idea struck Severus then. "Well Lily, chocolate is good but I think you need to give me some extra payment in order to hear all of the words I'm going to tell you…"

"Oh?"Lily blinked."Like what?"

"How about,"he struggled to keep from grinning."For every swear I tell you, you have to give me a piece of chocolate and one kiss."

"A kiss?"Lily repeated in a voice that was, much to Severus' relief, genuinely confused but curious and, as usual, as sweet as sugar, rather than repulsed or unnerved.

"Yes," he assented. "Possibly more than one for certain words."

For a moment he feared she was going to say no, or call him creepy for wanting her to kiss him, or never speak to him again, but instead:

"All right Sev."She smiled sincerely.

His heart thumped."Um, there's this really bad swear called **** ."

"Woah,"Lily was hanging onto his every word. "What does it mean?"

"You'll have to give me one chocolate and two kisses if you want to find out," Severus decided.

"Sure Sev, "She shrugged. She handed him a Hershey Kiss, leaned in and kissed his right cheek gently, chastely. It was the best five seconds of Severus' life thus far. Lily pulled away momentarily before kissing the other cheek, which was very pink. Afterwards, she reached into the bag and gave him a piece of the candy, which he gladly accepted as he tried to process that this actually just happened , and it wasn't just a dream.

He then noticed Lily staring at him and quickly thought of another unsavory word he could teach her."***** is another one."

"How much kisses is that?"Lily queried.

"One," Severus smiled.

Lily leaned in towards him, only instead of kissing him on the cheek like she had earlier, she kissed him full on the mouth. Severus' eyes widened and then shut as if automatically, as he savored the sensation. It was sweet and something else, Severus thought, although he did not know what. It was so…Lily. That's the only way he could describe it.

Eventually it ended, and Lily handed him another foil covered piece of chocolate. "Teach me more Sev! Please,"She added.

Needless to say, he happily obliged.

For most of the kisses after that, Lily chose to kiss him on the mouth. He soon reciprocated by kissing her back enthusiastically each time she did this. This went on for another hour or so, before they were interrupted. Up until then, it had been the best hour of Severus' life.

"LILY!" Severus and Lily, who had been kissing each other on the lips when this exclamation was howled, broke apart to see an irate Petunia storming towards them.

"Hi Tuney,"Lily welcomed nervously; even she silently acknowledged that Petunia was not going to be acting very polite towards Snape.

Petunia brushed past her towards Snape."HOW DARE YOU KISS MY SISTER, YOU-YOU-FREAK!"

"You know,"Severus commented. " Maybe if you had a wider vocabulary of insults it would actually mean something when you insult me. Instead your mouth makes this annoying noise."

Petunia was too furious to even speak.

"Tuney,"Lily attempted to reason."I was only kissing him so he would teach me some new swears."

Lily realized very quickly this was the wrong thing to say.

"You were the one kissing…him,"she whispered.

Lily nodded.

Petunia looked at her for a moment, then turned to Snape. She pounced.

Before Severus could even yell, Petunia pinned him to the ground, punching, kicking, and hitting him wherever she could. Lily screamed as Severus struggled to fight back.

"TUNEY! STOP IT!"She demanded, trying yet failing to remove Petunia off of Severus.

"NO Lily!"Petunia refused, scratching the side of Severus' face as she did so." He placed some sort of spell on you to agree to this, I'm sure of it! Even you would not willingly kiss a mutant like this!"

"He didn't do anything wrong, it was all my idea,"Lily wailed, pulling Petunia up off of him, only for Petunia to elbow Lily in the ribs, much harder than she intended to. Lily fell backwards on the ground, groaning as she clutched her rib cage.

Upon hearing her cry of pain, Petunia looked behind her for a moment , where she saw Lily lying on the ground. "Lily!"She ceased her actions almost instantly to make sure Lily was okay. Snape, though wounded, stood up to do the same. Lily as it turned out, was fine, but had just had the wind knocked out of her, which understandably had left her in shock momentarily.

"I'm okay,"Lily assured them breathlessly. "Just…shocked."

Snape held his arm out weakly-it had been the victim of quite a few kicks and punches from Petunia- to lift Lily up, but Petunia got there first before he could.

"Come Lily," Petunia took her by the hand and pulled her up graciously.

"Are you okay Sev?"Lily ignored her and inspected Severus' bruised face. "Oh, I'm so sorry Sev!"

"it's ok Lily,"He mustered a grin.

"Lily we are going home. Now."Petunia placed her hands on her hips. "I am going to tell Mummy and Daddy everything that just happened. You will never see this awful boy ever again."

"Oh really Tuney?"Liky countered."Are you going to tell them how you beat him up?I don't think they'd be too pleased."

Petunia bit her lip. She knew Lily was right:It was a lose- lose situation. Petunia shot Severus one last glare, turned on her heel and left. The dark haired boy and the auburn haired girl were both relieved; there friendship would last another day without Lily's parents' disapproval, which could complicate matters further.

"Bye Sev,"Lily waved as her sister stomped off with Lily; it would soon be time for supper, and both girls needed to be home soon.

"Bye Lily."Despite the bumps and bruises he had suffered from Petunia, today may very well had been the best day of his life…so far.

**A/N: So I thought I should include a fluffy little chapter…since next chapter is much darker than this. Also, Lily really is meant to be very sweet here; when she's asking people for things, she's not faking the sweetness since she really is very kind usually, she just knows it's common sense to be nice to people when you're asking them for things, or else they are less likely to give you what you want. Lily's behavior when she makes requests is seldom any different than how she normally acts.**

**Please review!:D**


	5. Betrayal

**A/N: Thanks so very much to everyone who has reviewed! For those who were confused, last chapter was a flashback of when Snape and Lily were children. Some of you may-or may not, since my updates have been so slow- recall that at the end of chapter 2 I had said I would explain a line that was a memory from their childhood. That is what last chapter was. I also included it because I felt it would help give a further idea of how Snape interacted with Muggles as a child and what they thought of him. By the way, the Avery in this chapter is not the same one from chapter 3. It is his older brother. You will understand what I mean momentarily. The Avery in Snape's year is named Edmund in this fanfic.**

**Disclaimer :I do not own anything in this fanfic except for my OCs.**

Chapter 5:Betrayal

It was funny, Bertha Jorkins mused, how she always seemed to get in trouble for telling the truth. Like today, for instance. That morning she had had Potions with the Slytherins (Bertha was a Gryffindor) and that was where everything went downhill. Everyone had gathered around outside the classroom; Slughorn was often late to his first period class, and the students were not allowed in until he unlocked the door for them. Everyone except for him was here at this point. Bertha chose this moment to act.

"Hey, Avery" She said loudly enough for the entire class to hear. "How's Florence doing?"

"She's your best friend, why don't you go ask her yourself?" Alton Avery, elder brother of Edmund Avery and two years his senior, said this coolly but a faint tinge of pink colored his cheeks.

Bertha ignored him and pressed on. "I saw the two of you snogging the other day. Behind the greenhouses. What did she taste like?"

As a hush fell over the crowd and all eyes were on him now, the flush in Alton's cheeks darkened. "None of your business,Bertha."

"I bet she tasted just awful; I saw her taking the drag before she kissed you. Then again, you were smoking too, so hopefully you didn't notice how rancid her breath was and vice versa." Bertha plowed on carelessly.

"Shut up Bertha." He growled.

"Was she good at it? Were you? Are you two planning on getting engaged any time soon? You know how that Muggle song goes: Alton and Florence sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes mar-"

The rest of Bertha's sentence was cut off by a loud yell of "_Furnunculus!" _Alton waved his wand at her. Bertha let out a shriek of pain and clutched her face as most of her classmates - even the Gryffindors - roared with laughter at her distress; gigantic, unsightly boils marred Bertha's face.

"Huh," Alton commented. "You look a damn sight more attractive now." More laughter followed this, and Bertha turned on her heels and left, the laughter of her classmates' ringing in her ears. She raced to the Hospital Wing, tears of physical pain from the curse as well as tears of humiliation and heartbreak streaming down her face.

Madam Pomfrey was able to remove the boils within half an hour or so. Once Bertha was healed, she looked at her face in the mirror and frowned. Yes, she was boil free, but that comment from Alton had really smart. Bertha had never thought of herself as beautiful; quite the contrary actually. In fact, she had always thought she was downright hideous. She had mousy brown hair that seemed to be frizzier than she thought was humanly possible. Her eyes were a dull shade of mud brown and she weighed by far much more than she would have liked.

She knew some overweight girls could be attractive; a couple of years ago during the Sorting ceremony, a very pretty but very chubby blonde first year named Alice Burke trembled up towards the stool, took a quick look at the hundreds of eyes on her, and promptly fainted. Once she had been revived, she took one more look at the audience, and fainted _again_. This time, the Sorting Hat was placed on her head while she was still unconscious, and carefully positioned so that if she woke up whilst begin Sorted and revived simultaneously, she would not see - and hopefully not feel - everyone staring at her. So when the Sorting hat yelled, "HUFFLEPUFF," and Alice ran towards her House table, everyone remembered her. Even ordinary Hufflepuffs were not that shy. Actually, Bertha had met quite a few who weren't shy at all.

Yes, Bertha knew overweight girls could easily be attractive - such as in Alice's case - but Bertha did not view herself as being among the attractive ones. Bertha would have liked to have been tall too; if she were taller, she would not look as plump as she already did. Her complexion was stark white, making a ghastly contrast with her mousy brown hair. Some people looked gorgeous with light brown hair and fair skin (such as that dumb girl in Slytherin Bertha had heard about named Karen Smith), but due to Bertha's hair being a fairly _light_ shade of _mousy _brown _and_ her skin being _so_ pale that it gave an almost lifeless look to her, it made the difference look just plain awkward. Out of place. As for her face, Bertha did not have any notable insecurities about it, other than her nose being a bit too big for her liking and it being strangely shaped in her opinion. Bertha did lament though, that there wasn't anything strikingly pretty about it; if she at least had a pretty face, maybe she could stand being able to look at herself in the mirror without flinching.

"Madam Pomfrey," she began. "I was wondering if there was anything else you could do…for my face I mean."

Madam Pomfrey leaned closer. "I don't see anything wrong with it, dear. All of the boils have been properly removed. It does not appear to me as if anything is the matter."

"I was just wondering if…" Bertha took a breath. "You could make it pretty." _Make me pretty, _she silently added.

A look of pity flashed across Madam Pomfrey's face. "I am afraid I cannot do that my dear," she said gently." Unless there is something medically wrong with your face or something I can do to improve your health, there is nothing I will do aside from telling you to boost your self-confidence and esteem."

Upon seeing the look on Bertha's face, the nurse added hastily, "I assure you dear, you do have reason to be confident and have good esteem of yourself. I only hope you see it in yourself one day."

"Right," Bertha hung her head. "Well, thanks anyway." A thought occurred to her. "What time is it, maam?"

Madam Pomfrey checked her watch. "9:45 A.M. If you return to class now, you should arrive shortly before the bell rings, in which case you should go so that you may collect the homework for today's lesson, find out what you missed, and answer any questions that Professor Slughorn will most likely expect you to answer. I will write you a pass."

Bertha reluctantly proceeded to return to class. She purposefully walked slowly so that she might be able to arrive to class right _after _the bell rang. As she was doing so, a voice called from behind her, "How are you faring today, Bertha?" As her luck would have it, Professor Dumbledore happened to be walking a stone's throw away from the Hospital Wing.

"I'm fine Professor Dumbledore sir," Bertha responded uneasily. "I was just on my way back to class. Madam Pomfrey wrote me a pass-"

"I have already been informed about the circumstances Bertha," Dumbledore assured her. "And I would like for you to follow me into my office."

"...He put a hex on me, Professor Dumbledore, sir, I only said I'd seen him kissing Florence behind the greenhouses last Thursday..." Bertha was currently explaining to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore stared sadly at her. "But why, Bertha? Why did you have to follow him in the first place?"

Why did she?

In order to fully answer that question, one would have to go back a long, long time ago. Back to when she was a first year. When she first met Alton. Well, not really met; they had never been formally introduced. But she was always watching. Always watching from afar. She never even spoke to him until she was a second year, when he had asked her to pass the scales in Potions class one day. He had always been handsome, Alton. And, though she did not realize it until now, she had fancied him for ages. So when his sparkling amber eyes filled with life met her dull mud brown ones, she forgot how to breathe for a moment. Bertha had never been fond of her eyes - but then, what parts of herself had she ever been fond of? - but when she gazed into Alton's, it was like looking into some sort of wonderful trick mirror that made, in Bertha's opinion, everything seem more beautiful than it actually was. Instead of the ordinary circular piles of mud that constituted her eyes staring back at her, pools of lovely chocolate brown were reflected. "Excuse me?" He had repeated. "Could you pass me the scales?"

"Right," she had responded, handing him the instrument. "Yeah,um." She evidently forgot how to speak too.

"Thanks," he had nonchalantly replied.

"Y-you're welcome," she had squeaked. She tried to think of something else she could say - anything to prolong their conversation, but that was that. And Bertha remembered it always, just like how she remembered every last word they ever exchanged since, which were very few, but meant everything to Bertha.

After that, Bertha would attempt to engage him in conversation whenever possible, but this always backfired as Bertha - despite being a Gryffindor - was seldom able to screw up the courage she needed in order to talk to him. So they very rarely ever spoke to each other, and their conversations were always brief even then.

Not that there were many opportunities where they could converse anyway. The only class Bertha and Alton had together was Potions. (Alton had opted not to take Care of Magical Creatures, unlike Bertha, who did not find this out until she had already submitted her electives form back in second year, and was thus unable to change her choices so she could have the same classes as him, much to her dismay. Alton took Arithmancy and Ancient Runes instead of Care of Magical creatures and Divination.) In addition, as Slytherin and Gryffindor were rival houses, the odds of positive inter-house interaction between the two was slim. So Bertha continued watching Alton, learning everything she could by observing him.

She knew he had been made Keeper on the Slytherin Quidditch Team and was superb at Potions. He had good leadership skills as well. She knew he was interested in the Dark Arts, but then that was common knowledge, due to his family name. Bertha had never judged him based on his lineage though; she concluded his interest in the Dark Arts was due to how many times she had seen him reading books pertaining to the topic in the library, overheard him discussing them with his friends, and how she knew he had gotten in trouble for using Dark Magic on school grounds on a couple of occasions.

Perhaps this should have been a red flag for Bertha, that she should not want anything to do with him, but perversely he intrigued her even more because of this. It made him...interesting, in Bertha's opinion. Not that he wasn't already interesting to begin with; this just made him more so, in Bertha's opinion. One more fact about Alton Bertha had discovered was that he was a smoker.

Bertha had a tendency to intentionally occasionally walk in the same hallways as Alton - while making sure there was a reasonable distance between them of course, lest he notice this and feel uncomfortable - and take the same paths as he did in the courtyard, in the hopes that she might screw up some courage when he was alone and start a conversation with him, although that never actually occurred. Sometimes - if she knew the Slytherins were having Quidditch practice - she even watched from afar, provided she watched from an area where the team would be unlikely to see her. Bertha was rather good at hiding; it was one of the reasons why one had to be careful when one was about to spill a deep and personal secret at Hogwarts, unless they wanted the whole school to know by morning and have Bertha to blame. And blame they did, Bertha knew; it was actually the main reason she was unpopular among her peers.

Regardless, last Thursday during the period of time when the last class of the day had ended but it was not yet time for dinner, Bertha realized she had left her Herbology textbook which she needed for tonight's homework in the Greenhouse yesterday. She was rushing out of the castle when she noticed Alton strolling in front of her. Bertha, as she was so often prone to, decided to ignore her common sense and let Alton be her main priority, and decided she would follow him first and then retrieve her textbook later. Yet, Alton was headed towards the greenhouses too. Except instead of entering the Greenhouse like she had hoped he would (which incidentally was the one where her textbook currently was, so that this way she would have a perfect and honest excuse for following him there, and could even pretend she ran into him by total coincidence) he was walking behind it from the left side. Bertha let him walk ahead a few more feet (she was currently trailing about four yards behind him) and then cautiously peered her head behind the Greenhouse, where she saw Alton walking towards someone, whom she could not identify at this distance.

She rushed inside the empty greenhouse so she could watch from the windows. (As classes were over for the day, it was empty aside from, obviously, the plants.) As she hurried towards the back of the greenhouse although they were not facing her, she could tell it was Alton and...

Her heart dropped in her chest. Could that possibly be...Florence? Florence, her one and only friend? Florence was a Ravenclaw who had befriended Bertha back in first year. Bertha had confided to her about her infatuation with Alton. In fact, Florence had promised that if she ever got the chance she would put a good word in for Bertha...Yes, that was it! A joyous grin so wide it could burst made its way on Bertha's face. Yes, Florence would be telling Alton positive things about Bertha, wouldn't she? As for what positive things, Bertha could not possibly know; Bertha found it amazing anyone could possibly like her enough to actually befriend her, let alone a girl as clever and attractive as Florence. Bertha did not think she had many positive character traits; she was unintelligent in every single way. Yet Florence did not seem to mind that much

Bertha continued to watch. Alton lit a cigarette and took a drag. He proceeded to offer one to Florence, who accepted, much to Bertha's shock. She had no idea Florence smoked. They were speaking to each other now. What they were saying, however, Bertha could not understand or hear well from inside the greenhouse. For a few minutes it carried on like this, with them smoking and speaking. Then, Alton faced Florence, cupped her face in his hands, and crushed his lips onto hers. Florence did not hesitate to reciprocate.

If one were to walk into the Greenhouse then and there, they could have easily pinpointed the exact moment Bertha's heart shattered into one million pieces, purely by the expression on her face. For a minute she was entranced, watching Florence and Alton kiss each other with a fervent passion. Then Bertha exited the Greenhouse. As if in a dream or a trance, she stomped towards Alton and Florence, who were so involved with each other that they did not hear Bertha coming until, "Funny, I never thought of you two being a couple of lovebirds."

They broke apart from each other instantly.

"Bertha..." Florence's breath hitched in her throat. "What are you doing here?"

"I just realized I left my text book in the Greenhouse," It amazed Bertha how calm her voice was. "So I came here to get it and I walked in on this..."

"Bertha," Alton began. "Florence and I would really appreciate it if you don't tell anyone about this. We're not ready to go public with our relationship yet."

"Yeah," Bertha heard herself say. "Right. I'll just go back inside and look for my book." And she did, making herself appear to be emotionless all the while. Even as she sat rifling through the contents of the textbook a few hours later, unable to concentrate on the homework - or any of the other homework she had for that matter - she made herself appear to be apathetic, even though she was hurting on the inside all the while.

Bertha kept silent for almost a week, something quite remarkable for Bertha. She had not interacted with Alton up until today and had not spoken to Florence since. On a few occasions Florence had sought out Bertha, but Bertha always managed to cross to the other side of the hallways, take the opposite staircase, or claim she would not be able to spend any time with Florence after dinner, due to that Defense Against the Dark Arts test they had tomorrow that she needed to study for. Bertha did not see Florence and Alton interact either, but she knew they were still together. She could tell by that swift look they gave each other on Monday while Bertha was handing in her exam, as Gryffindor and Ravenclaw exited the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and Slytherin and Hufflepuff entered as they had class next period, Florence and Alton's eyes met for a moment. Bertha wondered how she - and everyone else, for that matter - had and, aside from Bertha, _still_ did not notice the signs.

As Bertha wrote her Transfiguration essay, she wondered if Alton and Florence were presently sharing a light behind the Quidditch pitch. Were they together while Bertha completed her Divination charts? What were they doing when she was practicing her Summoning Charms? As she lay awake in bed at night, she pondered over whether or not they were snogging in a broom closet after curfew? Had Florence and Alton sought out an empty classroom while the rest of the school was in the courtyard during break for their own intents and purposes? And during classes shared between Ravenclaw and Slytherin, did they ever discreetly pass notes to each other?

Eventually Bertha could not possibly stand it anymore. The boy she was infatuated with was in love with another girl, Bertha's best "friend" who had known of Bertha's crush and gladly stabbed her in the back anyway. Although the couple had not explained why they'd prefer their relationship to remain a secret, Bertha had a sneaking suspicion she knew the answer. Florence's sister Abigail was a good student, older sister, and, most importantly, human being. She truly was. She honestly was very kind, intelligent, and responsible. So much so that she was made Head Girl this year, in fact. She always had good intentions and strived to do the right thing. At the same time though, she was a massive tattle tale. She had good intentions, but seemed unable to differentiate between telling on someone when it was the right thing to do and tattling unnecessarily. If she caught whiff of their relationship, she would immediately write home to Florence's parents, who would not be too pleased; they did not like the idea of their younger daughter dating now. Yes, it was petty and selfish and Bertha knew it, but she didn't care. If Florence wanted to betray Bertha, and throw away years of trust and companionship, fine. Bertha would betray her back. Bertha had told everyone she could over breakfast that morning, and then exposed their relationship in front of their Potions class too, as a few students there had not heard yet.

Bertha reflected on all of this as she sat in Dumbledore's office before finally answering his question with, "I don't know, sir."

Dumbledore sighed. "Very well Bertha you may go. Your next class will be starting soon."

"You mean I'm not in trouble?" Bertha blinked.

"Of course not Bertha." Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. "Why should you be?"

_I may have potentially destroyed my ex-best friend's love life and at the same time teased my love and may be responsible for the end of his love life too. I also broke a promise to both of them. Oh, and if any teachers find out both of them were smoking - even though I left out that little detail just now - they could be in serious trouble. Florence's parents will be livid anyway, since Abigail would not hesitate to tell them that part...and Abigail was the first person I told, and I spared no detail in telling her. She was outraged when she discovered this and thanked me profusely for telling her this._

"No reason."

"Good." Dumbledore beamed at her and Bertha suddenly found herself unable to look into his twinkling blue eyes. "I only wanted to call you in here to see if there was anything Mr. Avery had neglected to tell me. He shall be serving detention for his hex and unkind words, by the way."

Ordinarily, this news would have cheered Bertha somewhat. Yet she did not feel a speck better at all. "Right. Thanks."

She closed the door behind her and went to her next class...which happened to be Charms, a class shared with the Ravenclaws. Bertha and Florence normally would have been partners, but both chose to work alone today. However, Florence kept glaring at Bertha the entire class. After class, as Bertha was walking out the door, Florence caught up to her and said in a falsely sweet voice, "Hey Bertha, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Um…sure." Bertha realized there was no point in evading her any longer.

"Let's go talk somewhere private, like the bathroom," Florence suggested, and dragged Bertha into the nearest one a minute later.

"How could you do that to me?" Florence demanded, all sweet pretense gone. "If Abigail finds out, she will tell Mum and Dad, and I will not be able to be with Alton! Ever! And if she finds out I was smoking and tells them, I will be in so much trouble! Not only that, it will be yet another opportunity for them to compare me to Abigail _again_! _Why can't you be more like Abby?_ Abby _would never do that! _Abigail _would never smoke! "_

"Besides, if the teachers find out I smoked, there's no way in hell I can be a prefect next year! And I'd probably get a month's worth of detentions, _at least_! I might even get _suspended _for a couple of days! And you know that I _have _to be a prefect next year, since Mum, Dad, and Abigail were all prefects! What will they say if I'm not?!"

Bertha opened her mouth, but Florence cut her off. "I tried to apologize to you, but you kept avoiding me! And don't deny it, I know you have! I was also going to offer to break up with him, and ask if we can still be friends, but since you betrayed me, I think I'll stay. I don't want to break up with him anyway. If you had just given me a chance, I would have broken up with him if _you _wanted me to. I care more about our friendship than I do about some boy. I care about you, Bertha. Why do you think I befriended you in the first place? Why do you think I was your friend when everyone else was hexing you for spilling their deepest and darkest secrets to the whole school? I stood by you. I tried to get people to leave you alone. You know I did; you were there when it happened. I always listened to you. I helped you with your homework. I spent time with you when no one else would. You have no control over my love life. I mean, if you were in my shoes I would forgive you. After all, I valued our friendship. Really, I did. But I value my own happiness too. Really, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with going after what I want? We're holding each other back ,Bertha. I don't want us to be friends anymore."

"Florence, I-" But the door already slammed shut as Bertha's eyes began to water.

Bertha slumped on the floor, tears falling freely from her eyes. She knew everything Florence had said had been nothing but the truth, and that made the situation even worse. Bertha knew it was lunch, and her next class would not begin for about an hour. She decided she would skive off lunch for once (as her younger brother so often snidely suggested she do) and weep until her next class. Then she recalled that her next class was Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and then History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs again…Oh right, Herbology. Where this whole debacle began. What would happen if she skipped her afternoon classes today? She pondered briefly. Detention most likely. It probably would not be worth it. Until Herbology, she would let her emotions run free until she would have to attend class.

Weeping was an act a far cry from unknown to Bertha. However, whenever she engaged in it, she learned from a young age she must do it in private, lest she get laughed at. Again. Florence had been the only person Bertha had ever felt comfortable crying in front of, without ever having to worry about anyone teasing her for it, accusing her of being a "crybaby", or acting condescending towards her in any other way. Even then, Bertha tried to refrain from crying too much when Florence was around; Florence did not know half of all of the issues Bertha had.

Bertha had been the product of an affair. Bertha did not remember very much about her father; he had taken custody of her when she was born, still lived with his wife despite having an affair with another woman, and had told his family he was going out to buy a pack of cigarettes one day but never came back. Bertha was three years old at the time. That was another thing about her father Bertha remembered; he was a chain smoker. _"Went through a pack a day,"_ relatives claimed when they spoke of him. It was interesting to note, Bertha mused, that everyone who had ever betrayed her smoked. Her heart burned a raging inferno of love of all sorts, only for it to all go up in smoke. She should have seen this coming.

Bertha did not know where her father was or what happened to him. Nor did she have any knowledge pertaining to the whereabouts of her birth mother. All she knew was a life in a dark and crowded room with grimy windows while her half siblings all slept in clean and bright bedrooms. All she knew was a stepmother (would that be the proper term in this instance?) who blatantly favored her own children over Bertha, and acted as though she were forced to have Bertha reside under her roof. Bertha did not know why Mrs. Jorkins allowed Bertha to live with her; true, her father's will did dictate Bertha were to remain residing with her until she was of age, but surely she could have passed Bertha off to an orphanage or to another relative? Bertha had always suspected there was an ulterior motive Mrs. Jorkins had for keeping Bertha, although Bertha herself had yet to discover for herself what that motive may be. Bertha wondered other things about her stepmother too. Back when Bertha had not completely lost all of her self-esteem, it had occurred to her one day to ask Mrs. Jorkins why she never divorced Bertha's father for adultery. That was the only time Mrs. Jorkins ever struck Bertha physically. She had dealt Bertha many an emotional and verbal blow before, but she never beat Bertha.

Mrs. Jorkins forbade all of Bertha's half siblings from treating her kindly. Bertha had three half siblings; an older sister and brother, and another brother three years her junior. All of them treated Bertha as poorly as Mrs. Jorkins did. It was from her step family (her half siblings would also count as her step ones as her father had been married and they were all the product of that marriage) that she learned she was worthless in addition to all of the other thoughts she currently had about herself.

There was one thing that kept Bertha from losing all hope though, before she got to Hogwarts. In her family's library, there was a book on the shelves filled to the brim with Muggle Fairy Tales. It contained one story Bertha was quite fond of. It was a tale called Cinderella, about a girl who Bertha related to immensely. Cinderella too lived with an evil mother and step siblings who massively mistreated her. Only, one day she discovered Prince Charming, who rescued her and she lived happily ever after. Bertha aspired for her life to be like Cinderella's. Also, parts of Cinderella's stepsisters' feet got cut off, and they were blinded soon afterwards, which was a comforting thought Bertha reassured herself with whenever her half siblings were being mean to her; they were laughing now, but one day...

When she started school at Hogwarts, she believed Florence to be her fairy godmother. Bertha had always both envied and admired Florence. Florence was superb in all of their subjects, yet still strived to do even better. This was one of the many things that fascinated Bertha about Florence; she was constantly trying to improve herself in every manner possible. All, Florence eventually confided in Bertha one day, to be "just as good" as Abigail. For example, if she received an Exceeds Expectations on her History of Magic Test - something which always would impress Bertha, as the highest grade _she _had ever gotten on a History of Magic Test was an "Acceptable" - she would vow to study even harder next time in order to earn an Outstanding. If she received a 9 out of 10 on any given homework assignment or test, she'd do most anything for that ten on the next one.

Florence did everything Abigail had done when she was her age. She tried out for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team last year, for Abigail had tried out during her third year as well...and Florence did not earn a position on the team, just like Abigail, who was a fantastic flier yet could not hit, catch, or block a ball to save her life. The difference between Abigail and Florence though, was that while Abigail adored flying, Florence feared it, and was a far cry from good at it. Nonetheless, she had tried out for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, even wearing the exact same hair ribbon Abigail had...and failed spectacularly, actually fainting in midair, falling off her broomstick, and as she fell - by pure chance - she intercepted a bludger that had been aimed towards another person trying out, when - still utterly unconscious - her hand inadvertently struck it down in the direction of the Quidditch Captain, who was not able to cover his head fast enough, and was knocked unconscious too.

One would think after this episode, Florence would stop trying to mirror her sister - who had rushed to the Hospital Wing as soon as she heard what happened and insisted on staying the entire night, trying to entertain and comfort Florence - but no, Florence continued as persistently as ever to copy her and be "equal" to her. She even dressed like her, happily wearing Abigail's old clothes as hand me downs, buying the same hair ribbons and other fashion accessories as Abigail did, and occasionally going as far as "secretly borrowing" some of Abigail's _current _clothes from her dresser and wearing them, even though they didn't quite fit her. Abigail meanwhile was a remarkably good sport about all of this.

Bertha had always thought Florence was what Bertha herself would look like if she were pretty and had all of what Bertha perceived to be flaws in herself corrected. Florence was tall and slender, with chocolate brown curls that never became frizzy and did not clash with her skin. In fact, with Florence's skin being fair yet posseting a healthy and attractive amount of color, the two actually complimented each other nicely. In addition, Florence had flawless pearly white teeth, strikingly pretty facial features, and amber eyes. One would think Florence would be satisfied with the way she looked, although in reality this was quite the opposite. She yeaned to look exactly like Abigail and occasionally asked Bertha whether or not she thought they were equally attractive, to which Bertha would always respond yes, because that was the truth in Bertha's opinion.

Bertha never understood why Florence was so obsessed with looking exactly like Abigail; they looked almost exactly alike already. The only notable differences were that Abigail was taller, her hair was longer, she had freckles, and beautiful blue eyes.

On another note, she had thought she found her Prince Charming in the form of Alton Avery. No, she _convinced _herself Alton was Prince Charming in an act of desperation. It didn't matter they barely even knew each other; neither did Cinderella and the Prince. Only, there was one thing Bertha forgot; Cinderella was a fictional story, and not real life. Evidently, people did not immediately fall in love with each other and marry the next day, so consumed were they with love, despite barely even knowing each other. And evidently, merely wishing for something without working for it did not always guarantee success, contrary to what the fairy tale had taught her: Cinderella may have worked hard around the house, which was all well and good, but she never actively or independently worked to escape her environment. In the end, she was always relying solely on someone else to, without even considering at least attempting to rescue herself.

She thought back to Florence. She had not told Dumbledore about how the couple was smoking, and it seemed highly unlikely Alton would either, so hopefully the school board would not unearth that little detail. If they overheard some students talking to each other about that, than hopefully they would disregard it as neither Bertha nor Alton informed them about it. Especially considering that Bertha was very honest; even Bertha herself acknowledged that. Perhaps it was due to this that on the very rare occasions Bertha ever lied, everyone believed her. Bertha never lied about anything serious; the only remotely faulty information she ever declared were only ever perfectly harmless and innocent little white lies, and even then it was extremely seldom she ever did that. She liked to gossip it was true, but she never repeated anything unless it was entirely accurate.

How ironic it was though, Bertha mused, that whenever she _did _tell the truth she always got in trouble for it. Whenever Bertha discovered a secret and she spread it to as many people as she could, she would usually wind up getting hexed the next day in retaliation by the vengeful person who she had exposed. Not only that, but she was highly unpopular as a consequence; no one wanted to hang around Bertha too much, lest they let slip something private and have the whole school know the next morning. People did not always take kindly when Bertha gave her opinion either. Whenever one of her half siblings did something wrong, they often times tried to blame Bertha for it. She would instantly protest it wasn't her, but Mrs. Jorkins never believed her.

On the topic of not believing, Bertha could never quite understand why people didn't always believe her when she was being truthful, or rather, why if they did they didn't always seem to care. For instance, Mrs. Jorkins had as of now been in a relationship with a man named Terrance Banks for over two years who was quite a scoundrel. Even Bertha recognized this. Mrs. Jorkins seemed to turn a blind eye to his every fault despite this being rather obvious. Bertha could not comprehend what her mother could ever possibly see in this man. He smoked more than he spoke and whenever he did, his breath exulted a rancid odor, and more often than not a series of vulgarities passed through his lips. What he lacked in manners he did not compensate for in kindness. Or intelligence. Or in wit. Certainly not in class, or even elegance.

Bertha had always despised Terrance Banks with a passion. He had a nasty "habit" of coming to Mrs. Jorkins for money on an almost constant basis and never paid her back, he always broke his promises, and was simply unreliable, and did not appear to have any redeeming qualities whatsoever. Yet Mrs. Jorkins never dumped him. Bertha saw no logic in this; she had originally presumed he must be wealthy, as that could be the only reason why Mrs. Jorkins was interested in him, as he had no other attractive qualities of which to speak, yet even this was not the case. However, Bertha had had yet to discover just how vile he was until last spring break, just two weeks previously.

Mrs. Jorkins had been away on a business trip for the past three days and would not return until nightfall. (She worked in the Magical Maintenance Department at the Ministry of Magic.) As her siblings were so busy enjoying their free time without adult supervision, they failed to notice that Bertha was out of the house one day. Bertha had elected to take the Knight bus to Knockturn Alley. The driver very reluctantly let her off, though not before questioning her for the umpteenth time if she was absolutely certain this was her destination. Upon receiving confirmation yet again, he had no choice but to let her off. It was a good thing he didn't know what Bertha was there to do, or he may have refused to let her leave the bus: Bertha was there to purchase a pack of cigarettes.

She had heard from Terrance in addition to several other sources, that cigarettes temporarily released any pain one was experiencing, and replaced it with happiness. Even if the effect was only temporary, what did it matter? All she had to do was take another one whenever she felt down.

It was illegal to purchase cigarettes unless you were seventeen or older, but in Knockturn Alley, it was doubtful anyone would care that Bertha had only turned 15 merely a few months prior to this. Although Bertha was short and pudgy, she was also rather buxom for her age which could help make people actually believe she was older than she really was. Regardless of whether or not the man at the shop had truly believed Bertha was of age, she was able to purchase a pack of cigarettes, no questions asked, no need to show any identification. (It was not a law that one had to always ask customers for identification when purchasing cigarettes at this time period during the wizarding world. In fact, most people who sold cigarettes did not ask clients for identification unless the store owners were honestly uncertain as to the customer in question's age.)

As Bertha exited the store and walked for a few feet outside, matchbox clutched firmly in her hand, she finally exhaled the breath she had been holding since she entered the store. She could not believe she had gotten away with any of this. She had stolen money from her stepmother's purse to purchase the cigarettes, left the house without permission, and _just bought a packet of cigarettes to _smoke. She was so amazed by this she had not seen a man trailing towards her slowly.

"I don't think yer mum would like to see ye with those." Bertha spun around and saw Terrance standing there.

"She's not my mother," Bertha attempted to sound brave. "And it's not yours or her business."

"How much did those things cost?" said Terrance, his tone inquisitive.

"Er-I don't know, a couple of Galleons maybe, why?" Bertha responded curiously.

"You know, I deal those too... among other things." Terrance gave a sickening wink. Bertha repressed a shudder as she spoke.

"So?" Bertha had always suspected Terrance was a drug dealer.

A lascivious grin crossed his features. "Only, the girls don't always have to pay money to get what they want if they can't or don' feel like it...why, we 'ave all sorts of fun if they come back to my place with me... if ye know what I mean..."

Bertha blanched.

"The next time yeh need 'ore of those-" A predatory glint gleamed in his eyes as he spoke, stepping towards Bertha, who in turn had stepped back -"...yeh can get them; cheap and easy, if you catch my drift... Hey! I'm talking to yeh!" He grabbed Bertha's wrist as she attempted to move away from him. (They had been in a position where Bertha's back was almost against the wall of Borgin and Burkes.) She had been silently praying for someone within the store to see what was going on and stop it, when she realized something. Something she should have thought of before: Knockturn Alley was a dangerous neighborhood. That was common knowledge. What was also _common _was this sort of scenario, most likely. _No one would try to help Bertha unless she screamed because they would not think anything of her situation at the moment; this sort of behavior was considered_ normal _by Knockturn Alley's inhabitants._ _Perhaps even _acceptable. And even if she screamed, considering how many shady people inhabited and visited this area...would anybody _care_?

So, she had to take care of herself and, if necessary, _protect_ herself. Looking back on it now, she was being her own Prince Charming for once: Prince Charming had not been in sight at that moment, and it had occurred to Bertha she needed to _create _him. By _being _him.

So Bertha did what she deemed necessary in order to protect herself, as she knew no self-defense: She spat on Terrance Banks' face. His hand dropped her wrist to wipe his face as he exclaimed a profanity, and during this time Bertha had taken off like a cheetah as soon as he did that. She sprinted swiftly down the perilous and dismal streets of Knockturn Alley. She didn't stop running until she was out of breath and no longer heard the voice of Terrance Banks cursing after her and no longer heard the sound of any footsteps within the vicinity. Heart pounding, and matchbox still encased in her hand, she paused to catch her breath for a moment and rub the pain in her side before she would summon the Knight Bus. She put the matchbox in her pocket; she didn't want the driver asking any more questions.

"Thought yeh could escape me, did yeh…" A voice growled from the shadows. Bertha whirled around and screamed. Terrance had outsmarted her and was waiting for her in the alley facing her. Terrance emerged from the shadows, looking more menacing than ever. "'Snot nice to spit in people's faces, Bertha."

Bertha shook herself - she had been paralyzed in fear momentarily, as she had been before - and was about to bolt, when Terrance blocked her path, grabbing both of her wrists this time and pinning her against the wall, ignoring her loud protests. Panicking, Bertha spat on his face again. In retaliation, he spat on hers. His saliva reeked of tobacco, alcohol, and who knew what else. Bertha's eyes began to water.

"Tha' won' work again, yeh little bitch. Now I'm goin' to teach yeh a right proper lesson on-" Only Terrance never got to finish that sentence, because right at that moment she had remembered something. Once, when her younger brother Ron kicked her older brother Steven below the belt, Steven had let out a girlish scream and curled up in the fetus position. Bertha then proceeded to place a well-aimed kick on Terrance's crotch, and he relinquished his hold on her instantly, exulting an almighty moan of pain, and lowered himself to the ground in agony.

Bertha wasted no time in fleeing away, and did not stop dashing away rapidly until she reached Diagon Alley; a mostly safe neighborhood. Without hesitation she summoned the Knight Bus, which arrived summarily. She boarded it rapidly, trembling all the while. Bertha couldn't answer any of the bus driver's queries, although he did pose much less questions now than he had earlier. Evidently he gathered that she did not wish to speak about what happened. In fact, Bertha was having difficulty processing everything that had just occurred herself. As she had replayed the scenes repeatedly in her mind, it was as if she was trapped in a bubble and observing the events from an anesthetic distance; like a Muggle watching a film. Ah, if only that had been the case when the events were actually taking place at the time.

The bus pulled up in front of her house and as she was about to get off, the bus driver murmured, "Good luck, kid. Stay safe, all right?" He may not have known what had happened, but he could tell from looking at her _something _did.

"I'll try, thanks," Bertha smiled as she stepped down, knees shaking. When Bertha entered her house, for once it felt like home. Certainly more home like than Knockturn Alley at any rate. Needless to say, on that note, Bertha locked the door behind her, and double checked that it was locked. She then proceeded to make sure all of the entrances to the house were locked.

Bertha took a hot bath to calm her frazzled nerves somewhat as well as to think clearly, now that she was no longer in any danger. Or was she? Suppose Terrance decided to pay a visit? Bertha never wanted to see Terrance again. Ever. However, her stepmother was still in a relationship with him. Unless Mrs. Jorkins broke up with him, Bertha was doomed. Unless she told Mrs. Jorkins about their encounter in Knockturn Alley. Surely even Mrs. Jorkins wouldn't continue unnecessarily dating a man like that. Only, she probably would not be very pleased that Bertha had stolen from her, went to Knockturn Alley without permission, and spent her money on cigarettes. Nevertheless, it was a risk Bertha was willing to take; her safety was the most important thing, even if she got punished for going on her little excursion. Besides, she could always omit the part about the money belonging to Mrs. Jorkins, so she'd be in somewhat less trouble anyway.

Mrs. Jorkins would be returning home from her business trip tomorrow, and the next day the children would return to Hogwarts. Bertha planned on telling her as soon as she came home; but that didn't mean she couldn't tell her siblings first. After all, if she had their support when telling Mrs. Jorkins, that certainly could not hurt.

Screwing up her courage, every last ounce of it, she told her siblings. Steven, the eldest, simply did not believe there was a single speck of truth to her story. At all. Not even when she showed them the matchbox as proof. He said she must have obtained them from someone at school, for he could not believe she would be cunning enough to carry out such a plan, and that therefore the encounter could not have happened, and that Bertha most likely was doing all of this for attention. The youngest, Ron - who was 11 - was so fascinated that Bertha had managed to obtain matches, he barely even comprehended what she was saying, and found the entire thing exciting rather than horrifying. Martha, Bertha's sister, did believe most of Bertha's story and understood everything she said. However, she seemed to be under the impression that Bertha did not entirely understand what happened and simply imagined a small portion of it.

"I believe that you got the smokes," Martha informed her. "And I believe you about Knockturn Alley and that Terrance was there. I believe that he is a drug dealer and encourages girls to perform sexual favors with him in exchange for drugs. Which is despicable, but not unexpected from him. What I don't believe though, is that he actually was hinting that he wanted _you _to be one of those girls. I'm sure you just misunderstood him, and because of this, acted the way you did, resulting in him chasing you. "

"_He pinned me to a wall," _Bertha repeated. "And told me he'd teach me a lesson after swearing at me. He _spat on my face_. Do you really think he wouldn't have hurt me if I didn't run off in time?"

"I suppose he might have slapped you around a bit," Martha conceded. "And don't be such a hypocrite; you spat on his face first, after all. Twice."

Bertha was shocked silent for a moment before spluttering. "ONLY slap me around a bit? Martha, we don't _know_ what he could've done! And anyway, getting slapped around is horrible enough! And I only spat on his face to...to protect myself!"

"Well..."Martha was as stubborn as a bull, but even she could not dispute this entirely. "You should have known better than to have gone down there; we aren't allowed there."

Needless to say, these had not been the words of solace and support Bertha had been searching for.

When Mrs. Jorkins arrived home, Bertha told her everything that had happened in Knockturn Alley. The effect was not desired, to say the least. Not only did Mrs. Jorkins not believe a word in regards to anything Bertha said about Terrance, Bertha was sent to bed without supper and yelled at severely for "lying". The only remotely comforting thought was that Mrs. Jorkins did not believe she had obtained cigarettes or snuck out to Knockturn Alley. Not because she "wouldn't put it past" Bertha, but rather because Bertha was "too stupid" to have created such a plan. Not once did any of her siblings come to her aid to help convince Mrs. Jorkins.

It had been about two weeks since then. Bertha did not know who she could turn to. If she told someone, she would have to confess about the cigarettes, which could lead to her being in trouble with the law. Besides, considering how many people she had told and the reactions she had received, was it likely anyone else would believe her?

Bertha reflected all of this now as she sat on the bathroom floor, tears streaming down her face. She stood up; looking around to make sure the bathroom was empty. She walked into one of the bathroom stalls and locked it. Now when she was more alone than ever before, she needed to afford just one moment of happiness. She then reached into her bag and pulled out her pack of cigarettes. Hands shaking, she hesitantly pulled out a cigarette, about to strike when-

Bertha heard the door to the bathroom open. She instinctively panicked and flushed the matchbox - cigarettes and all - down the toilet. On the off chance it was a teacher who just walked in, Bertha did not want to think about what would happen if she were caught. Or if it were a student who would alert a professor to Bertha's extreme violation of school rules.

Bertha did not hear the footsteps head into any of the other cubicles, and realized she must come out soon or else she'd seem suspicious.

Bertha carefully adjusted her bag and opened the door. By the sink stood an auburn haired girl hanging up a poster of some sort on the bathroom wall. Bertha walked over to the sink and began washing her hands awkwardly. At the moment, the girl appeared to be struggling to keep the poster up; she was having trouble getting the tape to stick to the wall, evidently. Bertha recalled how her class had studied and practiced Sticking Charms last month, and how she actually was quite good with that particular Charm .

"Need a hand?" She inquired of the girl with the dark crimson hair.

"Oh no thank you, I can handle this," Right at that moment the poster fell off the wall and onto the ground. Sighing, the girl picked the poster back up and started to tape it back to the wall, but to no avail. As Bertha dried her hands and the poster fell down once more, and the girl picked it up again, she commented, "I know a Charm that would be a lot easier and faster."

"Really?" The girl remarked, as she tried and failed yet again to force the poster to remain on the wall.

"Yes," said Bertha as the paper crumpled to the floor. "It's called a Sticking Charm." Bertha picked the paper up this time, waved her wand and muttered the proper incantation. Sure enough, the paper stuck to the wall perfectly now.

"Oh wow, thank you," the girl exclaimed in awe.

"You're welcome," A thought occurred to Bertha. "What's your name? You seem familiar."

"Lily Evans," Lily replied. "What's yours?"

"Bertha Jorkins." It dawned on Bertha who this girl was now. "I've seen you around the common room before and at meals; we're in the same House."

"Yes, we are," Lily acknowledged pleasantly. "What year are you in?"

"Fourth," Bertha answered. "You?"

"Second," Said Lily.

"Oh, how do you like it?" Bertha inquired.

"I absolutely love it." Lily's emerald eyes positively gleamed as she spoke. "I'm Muggleborn and had no idea about magic or anything until I met this boy in my year - we live in the same town - who told me all about it. Sometimes I can still barely believe it's all real."

Ah, so that explained the wonderstruck expression on her face when she watched Bertha cast the Charm on the poster earlier. Speaking of which, what was on the poster anyway? Bertha looked at it and read it.

"A school newspaper," she exclaimed, perking up. Evidently they were in need of some reporters and columnist for some stories...

"Oh yes," Lily informed her. "A girl I know proposed the idea of starting a school newspaper to raise money for the school. It would be a sort of monthly magazine, or something like that. Anyway, the school board approved so it will start meeting in September; as there aren't many weeks left until finals, there's really not much of a point starting so late in the year, so it will begin next year. Are you interested?"

"Yeah, I am," Bertha smiled.

"That's nice, so am I," Lily agreed. "I had agreed to help hang up some posters to help advertise for it since I'm friends with the girl who's starting it...Although I am getting hungry and there's still enough time to eat since lunch won't be over for a while, I think I'm going to go eat now. See you around Bertha."

"Yeah. Bye."

Lily left.

Bertha noticed her face was still somewhat wet from ears; it was obvious she had been crying, only Lily had been too tactful to point it out. She hastily wiped her face, so no one else could tell. Her stomach growled as she did so. _I guess I could use a bite to eat myself._

As Bertha placed her hand on the door a thought occurred to her: Maybe she should be her own Knight in Shining Armor from now on. It might actually be easier than being forced to be completely dependent on someone else.

As she walked into the Great Hall, she made sure a smile was plastered on her face; true, her troubles were far from over, and she would have to face her demons - inner and otherwise - but perhaps just for today she would enjoy herself. After all, hadn't someone once said worrying about tomorrow accomplishes nothing aside from sapping today of its potential joy?

**A/N: I realize as I write this that Bertha never went to Slughorn for the homework, and I feel guilty for having Bertha go through all of that, so no, there actually wasn't any homework assigned that day.**

**Also, I reread the scene in Dumbledore's office where he's talking to Bertha as a student and it said she was "about 16"(p. 598) As far as I know it's never officially stated what House she's in in the canon, but I placed Bertha in Gryffindor, since I figured it would be unlikely that Sirius would know her when she was older than him unless they were in the same house; Ron doesn't even know the name of a Ravenclaw - Michael Corner – who's been in the very same year as him for **_**over four years **_**in Order of the Phoenix, so I figured Bertha must have been a Gryffindor, due to the minimal inter-house interaction - I figure they would have met fairly early on while Lily was at Hogwarts. Also, the scene in GOF where we see Bertha the student is told from Harry's perspective, and I know a ton of guys who could not guess a girl's age to save their life, so it's easily possible Harry could have guessed wrong, and it does say **_**about **_**16, so that could indicate she was slightly older or younger, or she could simply have been one of those girls who just happens to look older than they actually are. There's a reason I'm making a bid deal out of this and why it had to happen at this particular time for plot related reasons that will be revealed later on...**

**As for Madam Pomfrey refusing to change Bertha's face further, I'm sure some people are thinking to themselves, "well, she let Hermione shrink her teeth in GOF, why can't she do something similar for Bertha here?" The answer is that in that circumstance, Hermione was the one in charge of how her teeth would look. And since Madam Pomfrey knows how smart Hermione is, she would probably trust her judgment. As for Bertha, a girl who is described as begin rather clueless, makes dumb mistakes frequently, and isn't overly intelligent, Madam Pomfrey knows it probably wouldn't be a good idea to alter Bertha's face just because she requested her to, and there could be negative consequences later on Bertha would not have thought of since she is not known for thinking before she acts.**

**Questions: What do you think of Bertha? Of Florence? Which of them were more in the wrong?**

**Please review!:D**


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